Thanks for posting this, Dave!
 
Dave quoting Clay Satow, in part...
>>>It was quite clear to me (but I have a different view of what got called
>than Michael Neal does; Michael, when you say "even on replay" does that
>imply that you saw it on TV?).  Here's what I saw:  The puck was in the
>Michigan end.  Michigan had Comrie "cherry picking" at center ice.  Larose
>was covering him, and they were well away from the play.  Larose butt-ended
>Comrie in the ribs.  Comrie was stunned and went down.  The puck came out of
>the Michigan end, to the side of the rink opposite where the incident took
>place.  Larose went to the puck, and Comrie got up and went after Larose,
>across the ice.  That precipitated the scrum along the boards that I think
>Michael is referring to.
 
Yes, the TV just showed the play as the puck arrived, about at the blue
line.  Basically nothing happened there.  A.J.  gave a little tap on
Comrie's helmet with his glove, but no butt-ending was visible.  One of
the TV comments suggested it was called by a linesman, but no one clued
the announcers into the fact that they normally call only stuff away
from the puck, ... and that the penalty call was "delayed".
 
I'm almost relieved that Corey really did the "but-end".  If the player
action never occurred, then that exposed the officiating crew and
officiating in general with quite a problem.  On our local WABI wrap-up,
former HEA official Mike Tuell commented that, though there is
additional paperwork for a DQ, there is no recourse and essentially no
way to turn such a decision around or further assess penalty depending
on the severity of the action.  Mike did not expect the referee to
change the penalty, even with conclusive replay.
 
Of course, we did not see conclusive replay, nor was, apparently from
the above quote, there reason to suspect Corey didn't butt-end Comrie.
 
Quite out of character for this year's Ceglarski Sportsmanship Award
winner!  People can argue whether it warranted the major/DQ, but at
least we appear to know it happened.
 
To his credit, Corey was forth-right, honest, humble and apologetic in
post-game comments (broadcast on WZON radio this morning).
 
Goooooo BLUE!
 
Wayne T. Smith
[log in to unmask]                          Old Town Landing
Co-owner of the College Hockey lists - Hockey-L and Hockey3