Ross Bracco writes:
>In each case, if Malinowski had broken up the fight sooner, the situations
>would not have been as bad.
 
But it is typically the duty of the linesmen to break up altercations while
the referee observes and writes down penalties.  Even in the two bench-
clearing brawls I've seen in college hockey, the referee remained apart from
the altercations as best he could so he could see everything and provide
a report to the league.  That would have been Malinowski's chief
responsibility.
 
Also, I think sometimes referees get a bad rap for ugly situations like the
RPI ones (notice the plural! a possible trend).  The easy way out is to
blame the referee - "If he had called the game tighter, etc. this would never
have happened."  This is not always true.  In 1989, double roughing penalties
had just been called on two players each from Merrimack and Northeastern,
but seconds later a Merrimack player was speared in the penalty box, he
grabbed the Northeastern player and another NU player jumped off the bench to
crosscheck the Merrimack guy in the head while he was sitting in the box.
Then everyone grabbed a partner and tangoed.  How can you predict something
like that?
 
You didn't mention, but maybe there were signs that something was going to
happen such as more cheap hits, stickwork, and so on in the final minutes
leading up to the fights, and maybe the referee ignored it all hoping to
get the game over with.  This falls under one of my three criteria for
referees, Keep The Game Under Control.  But I recognize that there are
unforeseen incidents that just explode without warning.
 
In addition, I'm sure Kenny Z. can talk about this better, but you cannot
expect two linesmen to be able to stop 10-12 players on the ice from fighting
if they really want to (i.e. Northeastern-Lowell 1988, they just had to let
the players get tired).  In the RPI at Cornell game in 1985-86 that we
talked about here a little while ago, which I was at, all ten skaters were
up against the boards and as the linesmen moved in to break up the central
fight, more fights broke out on the fringe, especially when RPI's John Carter
had one opponent's helmet pushed back and gave him a few rights to the chin.
There's nothing the linesmen could have done about that.  Often the officials
are used as scapegoats for the players' stupidity and lack of self-control.
 
 
- mike