I hate to whine about officials, but the more I see about last weekend's
series at the Houston Fieldhouse the angrier I get.  Mike Noeth's
officiating errors definitely appear to be more than ones of judgement,
they appear to be ones of competence.
 
Friday's game seemed innocuous enough.  Cornell ekked out a win on the
basis of superior goaltending.  Elliot outplayed Prekaski.  Win to
Cornell.
 
Saturday the deterioration starts.  He misses a tying Cornell goal.  I am
convinced of it now.  The entire game turns on the call as RPI alertly
goes down ice as Cornell celebrates a score that never makes it to the
scoreboard.  But I think Laing would have won it for the Engineers anyway.
 
Move to Sunday.  Gross errors.  The winning Cornell goal was deflected by
a high stick.  Tonight's Fox23 replay uses a different angle and clearly
shows Kovack raising his stick in front of him, about a foot above the
shoulder.  The puck can be seen riccocheting off the stick blade past
Laing.  Laing never moved, and on the basis of the replay, you can see
why.
 
Fox23 also shows a replay of the third Cornell goal.  Laing gets pushed
into the side of the net, momentarily stunned, by a Cornell player.
Sutherland scores into an open net.  There is no RPI defenseman visible in
the play.  This is one tough night of officiating.
 
My intention is not to demean the effort of Cornell.  Their relentless
pressure, and the coaching of Mike Schafer, won it for them, despite their
mediocre goaltending and uncreative passing.  I just wish we could have
seen an overtime for game three, with the best team emerging sans
questionable officiating.
 
Miserable in East Greenbush.
****************************************************************************
Brian Morris                RPI Engineers--The Season's Over
[log in to unmask]
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.