MAINE MUST FORFEIT 21, NC$$ RULES
by Allen Lessels
Globe Staff
 
        The University of Maine hockey team split in NC$$ decisions
announced at Orono last night.
 
        For the second time this season, Maine was ordered to forfeit games--
this time 21 of them for the use of an ineligible player. The good news for
the Black Bears is that the NC$$ ruled that they player, graduate student
Patrice Tardif, is again eligible.
 
        In addition, university president Frederick Hutchinson announced
last night that athletic director Michael Ploszek and NC$$ compliance officer
Linwood Carville have been placed on investigatory leave indefinitely while
an independent investigator examines the recent series of events in the
athletic department. The school defined "investigatory leave" as an action
involving a performance-related question.
 
        (NOTE: last line should read "performance-related investigation,
not question. --Sid)
 
The next question involves how many games Tardif and the reloaded Black
Bears get to play. Maine visits New Hampshire tonight at 7 and Boston
College tomorrow night.
 
        Athletic Directors of the Hockey East schools are to consider
the Maine situation in a 3pm conference call today. At issue is how the
Maine forfeits will effect the standings and whether the Black Bears will
be allowed to play in the league tournament that begins next week.
 
        "The athletic directors could take no action and stay with the
status quo and leave them where they are or, based on what the NC$$ has
done, they could forfeit all the games and participate from the eighth
spot," said Hockey East commissioner Bob DeGregorio, the athletic director
at Merrimack College. "The third option, obviously, is that the league
could take further action and suspend them from the tournament for this year."
 
        On with the tournament, said Maine coach Shawn Walsh, whose team
drops to 5-26-1 overall, 2-19-1 in the league.
 
        "It's great news for Pat and I think it sheds a clarifiying light on
the degree of this infraction, as far as the player and coaches' involvement,"
Walsh said. "This should end any discussion about us not being in the playoffs.
I think it should and I think it probably will. The question is, should
Boston University have to play Maine, or do they deserve a choice?"
 
        By dropping into the eighth spot, Maine -- which has Tardif and
the Ferraro twins, Peter and Chris, back and may still get Hobey Baker
Award winner Paul Kariya back -- would play at BU in the first round of
the Hockey East playoffs.
 
        Maine has already forfeited three games -- wins over Providence --
for using an ineligible player at the start of the season.
 
        Tardif was ineligible for games between Nov. 22 and Dec. 18 and
Feb. 4-20. He was incorrectly advised by a university official that he needed
to carry six graduate credits to be eligible. In fact, the number was eight.
He carried six through the first semester and was carrying nine in the
second until he dropped a course Jan. 31. He has since returned to the course,
and thus was ruled eligible again.
 
        "Circumstances warranted the restoration of eligibility on the basis
of the institution's actions," a statment from the NC$$ said. "The staff
believed that Mr. Tardif, as well as other student-athletes, were specifically
mis-advised regarding the rule."
 
        Carville, who advised Tardif and four other athletes incorrectly,
was reassigned by the university last week, and Ploszek was suspended for
a week without pay for his role in the affair.
 
                         **************************
 
--Sid Whitaker