Since Dave brought it up... rant on  :-)

I nearly threw up when I saw that she was the referee for this game.  She
struggles officiating ECAC contests, I could not believe that she was
wearing the stripes for one of the (potentially) largest game in women's
hockey history.

One of the problems in women's hockey is that they really want to push
female referees and get them into the "big time" if you will.  But I think
they are trying to push *some* of them too much.  Without knowing much of
Stacey's background I can't comment on that, but so far as I know she has
not been an official for more than 2-3 years (please correct me if I am
wrong).  I can't believe there wasn't a more qualified official for that
game.

That said, she did impact the game and the commentators were correct to be
critical of her performance.  She ruined the flow of the game for the US and
could have cost Canada the game with all the penalties she called.  While I
thought she was brutal and I wish I could use it as an excuse as to why
Canada won.. I can't.  Canada played with more heart IMHO than the US did,
which is disappointing.

Women's hockey is not easy to officiate.  The no-checking rule creates a
fine line that each referee has to determine.  While there is no checking,
there is physical contact allowed.  How much of that physical contact the
referee lets go is the point of interpretation.  Stacey has never been one
to "let the teams play".  It was too bad because I bet each of those players
would have appreciated a more conservative referee.

-Deron


----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: maine in the olympics


> One other UMaine hockey connection with the Olympics was Stacy Livingston,
who coached the UM women's hockey team when it was a club team.  She
refereed the women's hockey final between the USA and Canada.
Unfortunately, she did a horrible job, calling eight penalties in a row
against Canada, most of which were questionable and which resulted in two
5x3s.  Then she continued to call penalties, but in a couple of instances
made calls against the USA although the infraction, if it was worthy of a
penalty, was committed by Canada.  (In one such case, the US player was
called for charging even though she was skating into the offensive zone with
the puck!)  The announcers made several comments about her calls, but they
identified her as being from "Northern New York."  Both of the U.S. goals
were power play goals, and I'm sure there would have been loud complaints
about the officiating if the U.S. had squeaked out a win.  But it's at least
arguable that the officiating hurt the !
> U.!
> S. team also by preventing any flow from developing throughout the
contest.