As an SLU fan I can't say that I disagree with your comment about Flangan's move being a "bush" one and that is very un-Saint Lawrence like. As to Yales' players being "warranted" I'm not sure I agree with you there.
I think that altercation was brewing/stewing even before that borne of our frustration with playing a good game and letting it get away from us at the end. I thought the officiating was also very lopsided and one of the players in the altercation from our side, Drewiske, was I am sure very, very frustrated after being run into the post and Rondeau by a Yale player and then being called for goalie interference when it was the Yale player who should have been penalized. I don't know where you were sitting but we could hear Drewiske talking up a blue streak at the referee after the call and the referee just took it (normally they would add on a penalty for the rough talk) but our guess was the referee blew the call and let Drewiske blow off steam and didn't give him anything extra.
You are also way off base on your comments about conditioning and the fitness level in the third. Have you ever played hockey or a competitive sport??? It wasn't about conditioning. It was about being mentally and physically worn down by a superior opponent. That happens in EVERY sport when a weaker team plays a better opponent.......you can often hang with them for awhile but after a period of time all that talent wins out and the accumulating effect is often exhaustion both mental and physical and it is not conditioning that won the game for Yale in the third, it was superior firepower and us chasing a better team all night long. That is rapidly developing into Yale's MO. Teams can hang with them for awhile but in the third Yale has just worn lesser opponents down and things open up from there. Yale will need to continue that as come tournament time the opposition will be equal or even superior in some cases and they will need everything for the entire 60 minutes.
Good luck the rest of the way. Without fail almost every opponent in the ECAC is proud of Yale's accomplishments this year and the last few and we hope you represent our conference well and can go far come NCAA tournament time.
The players of the game for Yale and SLU were undoubtedly Rondeau and Weninger the two keepers. Although a SLU fan I live close to New Haven and Hamden and have watched quite a few Yale and Q Pac games. I keep waiting for Rondeau to blink or wilt but thus far he hasn't. Were it not for him Yale could easily have been down 1,2 or even 3 nil which could have made for an interesting second half of the game. Down at our end Weninger played superb to keep the lead at 1-0 and he could do nothing on the second (deflection) and third (wide open net from the weak side on the PP) goals.
Getting back to the Flanagan play for the life of me I don't understand why (if his intent was to pull him down) he didn't do it sooner where there wouldn't have been any jeopardy of being near the net. Dumb move and frustration I guess?
Our coach was not present this weekend and I am sure he would not have been pleased with the action of our player (what happened after that is fine because at that point it is only self defense and your/our guys protecting their respective players).
