My beef with the officiating isn't that they're affecting the outcome of
games, but that they're affecting the health of players.  For the last
couple of years it was checking from behind that was being ignored (contrary
to the NCAA guidelines), but while there were a couple of these that went by
uncalled this weekend, it's the slashing that's now out of control here in
the WCHA.  Towards the end of Sunday's game, one of the North Dakota players
showed us his Paul Bunyan impression with a two-handed over the head job on
Brett Abrahamson's hand; Mike Schmitt stood five feet away from this and let
it go uncalled.  I understand that it was late in a close game, but Schmitt
went beyond the "no blood, no foul" standard on this one.
 
This is not to say that there is some sort of conspiracy to get the
Gophers.  We get away with our fair share of slashes, particularly Wyatt
Smith and Erik Westrum.  This was just the most obvious non-call I've
seen.   Minnesota has been going through an epidemic of broken hands over
the last month, though, so I'm a bit sensitive to it.  It also seems that
those post-whistle scrums we're all familiar with just can't be considered
complete without cross-checking someone in the head.  After the season,
league honchos need to get together and decide to put an end to this.  There
are two things that need to be pointed out at this meeting though: the refs
are actually going to have to CALL these penalties rather than just listen
to the lectures and ignore the penalties like they have with checking from
behind, and someone should tell them that if they were doing their job, this
meeting wouldn't have been needed.
 
While I like obstruction fouls to be called pretty tightly, I'm open to
different interpretations of these and figure that the teams should adjust
to the conditions.  But I've run out of tolerance for the dangerous things
that the refs consistently decide to let go.  They are either incompetent or
negligent; I'd find the second more worrisome than the first.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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