I probably should have posted this before now, but it is not too late.  In watching the championship game last year, I came away with the feeling that the game was marred by the incredibly poor officiating of Frank Noeth.  Now I will admit right up front I am a UNH fan and I thought we got screwed over by him, but I recall a great deal of discussion on USCHO and Hockey-L about this for some time after the game.  I got the impression that Maine fans, despite being champions, were certainly tuned into the fact that Noeth was one of the worst referees they had ever seen.  More to the point, ECAC fans chimed in but said, in essence, "Oh yeah.  Noeth.  We knew about him all along."  Well, fans in other conferences didn't know about him.  And not that the fans in any conferences can do anything about it but I am convinced that if this message had been posted a year ago, and the names of Noeth and other referees had come up, that that info would somehow have made its way to the coaches.  They might have found a way to get the lowdown on these guys BEFORE the game.
 
To help avoid that this year, it would be a service to college hockey fans everywhere if they let fans in other conferences know about the, shall we say, "problem" refs in their conference.  I'll start off with Hockey East.
 
IMHO, the two worst refs in HEA are Tim Bennedetto, and John Gravallese, in that order.  The rest are tied for a distant third so if you're rooting for a non-HEA team, and you see either of these two clowns show up, let's just say you've got problems.
 
How about it, ECAC, CCHA, CHA, WCHA fans?  And, anyone else in HEA want to elaborate on these or other refs?
 
Craig Knowles
UNH '71
 
GO BLUE!!
 
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