Tom's pet peeve is also mine, i.e. penalties in the first period (or in this
case, the first two) are not called in the third, in part because the officials
"don't want to decide the game".  Well, couldn't an UNCALLED penalty that sets
up a scoring chance decide the game??
 
Noeth is not the only official in college hockey that does this; in fact, I
would wager that most of them do.  But despite the penalty calls and non-calls,
I didn't think that he over-controlled the game.  Adam Wodon opines that Noeth
is the best ref in the ECAC, and if Rob Hearn isn't doing games anymore (is he?
 I don't know), then I would probably have to agree.  Think about it, ECAC fans
-- who would you have rather seen doing this game?  Bill Doiron??  John Murphy,
maybe?
 
Which brings up a question I have.  Clearly, in an NCAA tournament game between
teams from different leagues, you can't use officials from either league.  For
example, a CCHA ref or a Hockey East ref could not have done the UNH-MSU semi.
 But for an all-Hockey-East championship game (or for that matter, the
all-Hockey-East semi between Maine and BC), why didn't they have Hockey East
officials, who would at the very least have been somewhat familiar with the
styles of both teams?  As I recall, Frank Cole, who was largely a Hockey East
ref at the time, did the '95 final between Maine and BU.
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95                                             DJF  5/27/94
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  JCF  12/2/97
"Not while I'm alive."
-- _Chicago Sun-Times_ columnist Irv Kupcinet, on Howard Cosell's claim that
   he (Cosell) was his own worst enemy
 
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