Roger writes:
>> Officials: Three Bozos from the East, I presume
>
>Their names were R. Fowkes, S. McBride, and some lone linesman.  I
>remember seeing Fowkes last year...  These guys put away their
>whistles after they blew them to indicate the initial face-off.
>Penalty?  What's a penalty?  To their credit, they were consistent
>throughout the entire game.
 
That's Rich Fowkes and Steve McBride, and the linesman was probably also
from Hockey East.  McBride is not considered one of the better referees in
the league; I am a little surprised he would be chosen to do the regionals
over a better HE ref.  But you say they were consistent, and that's usually
the case; I think consistency is the most important quality an official can
have, and that may be a reason why they were chosen.
 
The East regional got the better set of HE refs IMO, Frank Cole and John
Gravallese.  They did the Minn-Clarkson game which was pretty uneventful.
 
>BTW - the NC$$ strikes again.  Look at this scheduling masterpiece:
>The Michigan-Kentucky basketball game has been scheduled for 8:30
>Saturday, April 3.  Now, if Michigan gets by Maine Thursday, Michigan
>fans (not me, though), are going to have to get two TVs for the
>Saturday games.  WHY? WHY? WHY do this?  It really wouldn't be that
>difficult to schedule these games so there are no conflicts, no matter
>WHO is playing.
 
I think it's a definite problem that hockey challenges the accepted supremacy
of the hoop tourney by scheduling its championship game opposite hoop.  A
couple of years ago, the semis were played on Fri and the final on Sunday
afternoon.  I would like to see them return to this, since the hoop games
are played on Sat and Monday night.  There's also the question of whether
the arena is available for Sunday, however.  But it would even be possible
to play the final on Saturday afternoon and avoid a conflict, and they did
not do that.  Someone like myself (and probably many people on here) will
watch the hockey final no matter what else is on, but this is the best time
of the year to draw new fans to the sport with a truly nationally televised
game, so it is disappointing that they don't take better advantage of the
opportunity.
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
alternate address days: [log in to unmask]             *HMN*  11/13/93
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)