> >In the three games at the Excel Center the only crew I think did a
> >competent, organized job was the Sheppherd WCHA crew in the first
> >game.
> 
        Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it Schmitt who did the first game? It couldn't have been Shepard who is nothing more than a glorified linesman that got elevated to orange arm stripes by his father who is head of the WCHA referees. And Schmitt is no real bargain either, the biggest problem with the WCHA crews are the linesmen who are so anal-retentive that they do not drop the puck (or anything else). If the NHL thought the 15-second face off rule of the Olympics was a good idea, it is more so for the WCHA linesmen who will tell the players their life story before getting their job (which is to restart the play) done. 

        When the refs came out and I saw Piotrowski, I told my son he was the best referee in the business and that though he would let some rough stuff go, he would call it fairly even. That may have been true for three periods, but not the overtime. How an attempted hip check becomes a trip is beyond me. Hauser took away a scoring opportunity because the player he tripped was going after the puck in the corner. Hauser had to punch three players attempting to go around the net before they called it in the WCHA tournament, so I guess he was told to stop at two on Saturday. But as before, my complaint is not going to aimed at the referee, but at the linesmen. I have yet to watch the tape of the game, but there were two to three phantom icing calls and one major bogus offsides calls, any one of which would have killed 59 seconds of game time. But until I see it on tape and can replace my emotional disgust with objective facts, I want to keep my mouth shut. I thought the LSSU vs Wisc. game in Albany was marred by bad officiating, but this one was a complete failure of a crew, not just one. 

        With all that said, it was still the most exciting college hockey game I have ever been to. I heard of $250 to $300 being paid for tickets to the game, and those people saw a game much more valuable than the price of those tickets. The atmosphere (arena), the fans, the teams --- WOW!

        Nathan Hampton