Cathy Smith wrote:
 
>Funny, I would have said "best Ref"  and given the "worst ref" title
>to Shegos.  There is one other guy that recently worked the LSSU-Maine
>contest and he was simply awful and the game was out of control after
>the first two minutes.
 
>On Fri, 8 Nov 1996, Varnum, Paul wrote:
>> CCHA - Piotrowski
 
I saw this thread on an NHL discussion group once, and the ref
mentioned most often was Andy Van Hellemond, perhaps the best official
in any sport at any level.  As I am not a big fan of this type thread,
let me point out how the best refs could be the ones consistently
mentioned as the worst.  The CCHA seems to have their refs ranked for
the purposes of assigning them to games.  It goes something like this:
"A" list:  Piotrowski, Matt Shegos, Mark Shegos
"B" list:  Graff, Petterle, Sotiroff
"C" list:  Edwards, LaDuke, Shell
The biggest games of the weekend are given to the "A" list refs.
 
Let's say that Lake Superior is hosted Illinois-Chicago on Friday and
Michigan State on Saturday.  Friday's game has a "C" list ref and
Saturday's has an "A" list ref.
 
On Friday, the "C" list ref makes many bad calls against each team, and
Lake Superior wins 8-2.  On Saturday, the "A" list ref makes only a
couple of bad calls against the home team, and the Spartans win 4-3.
The Lake State fan comes away thinking Shegos is a bad ref, even if he
called a relatively good game.
 
I suspect the same may be true of Ammian in the ECAC, he has done a
good job in the NC$$ tournament games I have seen him officiate.
 
Remember:  the worst refs are usually the ones who don't get to do the
big games.
 
 
Alton Hollingsworth
 
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