A record 4588 fans jammed into the USAFA field house to watch the final meeting
of the crosstown rivals this season. In what I thought was a well played,
fairly even game with "brutal" officiating, the CC Tigers came away with a
4 - 2 victory in a game that could have gone either way. Becausr of the crowd,
I was at the end of the arena, and some of the more interesting things occurred
at the far end.
3 minutes into the game, there was an obvious hold and some retaliation. The
penalties were 1 holding to the instigator and roughing to both. CC finally
converted on their 2nd power play to take a 1-0 lead. Air force seemed to
tie the game shortly thereafter, but the light did not come on, and the referee
(who was late getting down to the end) wasn't in position to make the call.
All the (admittedly biased) fans on the goal line felt the puck was a good 3
inches into the net in the air before tiger netminder Dennis Casey grabbed it
and rolled forward away from the goalmouth. (having judged goal for youth
hockey, that is a extremely difficult call for a goal judge) Shaun Ried put
the tigers up 2-0 with a slap shot that got by a screened liebich with a mere
40 seconds remaining.
CC went up 3-0 five minutes into the second stanza, and USAFA drew to within
2 four minutes later. Then, at 12:54, following a fracas, there were
coincidental minors for roughing and a double minor for high sticking and
roughingg to a second tiger. This gave USAFA a 4 on 3 advantage, and they drew
to within one a minute later. The 3 penalty clocks read :58 :58 and 2:58
at that point. After several false tries, (:58 :00 2:58 and :58 :58 :00)
the officials finally wiped out the rest of the first extra minor and set the
clocks at :58 :58 and 2:00 and pay resumed. Air force got at least 3 posts
during the final minute of the 4 on 3 but could not convert. Things were
uneventful until Air Force got a 5:00 major for checking from behind with 3:30
to play. The falcons were masterful in killing off the first 3 1/2 minutes but
were called for a roughing minor in the offensive zone (i thought it was
totally bogus myself) with 2 seconds remaining in the period. This sent the
falcons into the locker room down 3-2 and looking at a full 90 seconds of 5 on
3 against them.
Even though air force killed off the 5 on 3 and had several good opportunities,
they kept taking needless penalties. The referee (I haven't got a name) went
from a strong first period to a weaker second period and a terrible 3rd period.
At the outset, he was calling things well, but later on went to calling only
the retaliation. CC got the only score of the final stanza on a knuckle
ball from the point 7 minutes in. An assist went to R.J. Enga, son of an Air
Force assistant football coach.
The local paper claims CC had 38 of 63 shots on net and Air Force had 16 of
32 on net. It also said Air Force had 18 penalties for 60 minutes and CC
had 14 for 39 but those numbers MUST be wrong since CC had 3 misconducts and
Air Force had a major and a misconduct, and i don't know if they are counting
double minors as 1 or 2 penalties. By my count from the summary, penalties
were as follows:
AF CC type
10 8 minor
0 2 double minor
1 0 major
0 1 misconduct
0 1 minor plus misconduct
1 1 double minor plus misconduct
12 13 total calls
14 18 total infractions
39 60 total minutes
25 24 man down minutes
Scorers
AF - roe & Ingraham from Courtney, Gallagher, Bilek, and Mantaro
CC - Block, Reid (2) and Fearns from strunk, venkus, block, duryea, bruininks,
mccafferty, and enga
charlie shub [log in to unmask] -or- cdash@colospgs (BITNET)
or even (719) 593-3492
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