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From: Phil Ritzenthaler <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re:  Bad Penalties
On Jan 24,  4:35pm, [log in to unmask] wrote:
} Can't give the official rule, but in the CCHA, checking from behind draws
} an automatic 10-minute misconduct.
}-- End of excerpt from [log in to unmask]
This the exception rather than the rule.  I first saw checking from
behind penalties 2-3 years ago in the CCHA . . . the ref's were REAL BIG
on it the first year.
Since then, at least for the past 2 years, you could count on 1 hand the
checking from behind penalties I've seen . . . and they were all the 2
minute kind.  It may be on the books, but they don't call it!
Phil Ritzenthaler  The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts & Design (ACCAD)
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With full credit to Neil Koepke, Lansing State Journal, and his article
(coincidentally ?) Fri Jan 25, 1991.
 
Bill Beagan, CCHA Commissioner, issued a memo in December to take effect in
January that any -checking from behind- and -roughing after the whistle-
would include a 10 minute misconduct in addition to the 2 minute minor and
included instructions to the referees "to call things tight or face
suspension." [Talk about pressure on the referees].  "In addition, a coach
whose team is called for three checking-from-behind penalties will be
reported to the CCHA Compliance Committee for disciplinary review."
Neil then states there were 19 misconducts two weeks ago and 22 last week,
a total of 18 for checking from behind and 13 for roughing.
  It wasn't clear from the article whether the "coach gets 3" was per game
or cumulative but even 22 divided among 9 coaches must mean someone must
already be on the carpet.
 
Responding to Matt Jonson's perspective on the referee's, I really appreciated
his remarks.  As a would-be referee who worked a fair amount of high school
basketball some time back, and who has neither the ability nor the
temperament for that kind of a job - the pressures on officials are
tremendous and with all the abuse heaped upon them by the fans who generally
have a pretty one-sided view point, it is a wonder we have any officials
at all.
 
One more item, again without benefit of the official wording:  Linesmen
in the CCHA may report penalty situations to the referee and I've seen
it done.