At 10:12 AM 3/29/96, Greg Berge wrote:
>I saw the goal on ESPN2 in a sports bar with no sound, first live and
>then from several replay angles.  Here is what I saw, and
>why I think (despite having rooted for the Cats) that the call was
>correct.
 
After seeing the play live Thursday, I never got to watch a replay closely
until tonight when I pulled out the tape at halftime of the
Kentucky-Syracuse basketball game.  I did hear various opinions throughout
the weekend from different people who saw it - some claimed it was good,
some said it was not.  I didn't know what to think, so I decided to reserve
judgment until I got a good look at it.
 
Tonight I sat down and went through all the different ESPN2 replays in slow
motion, frame by frame, and I am pretty sure that the goal should not have
counted.  Here is why:
 
>1.  A CC player (the one ultimately credited with the assist), while
>    falling forward in the crease, swats the rebound with his glove
>    and intentionally redirects the puck down towards the goal.
 
This was Jay McNeill.  He took the original shot that went off the pipe.
 
The replay does clearly show McNeill batting the puck with his glove.
 
>2.  The puck deflects off of Thomas' leg and settles on the ice outside of
>    the goal line.
 
This isn't what I saw.  The angle that shows it best is the one in which
the net is on the left of the screen.  I had to go frame by frame to see
this.
 
After McNeill bats the puck down, it goes behind Thomas and appears not to
touch him at all, and it hits the ice, heading towards the post to Thomas's
left.
 
>3.  A VERMONT player attempts to clear the puck but deflects it into
>    his own net off of Thomas' skate / ankle.
 
The Vermont player was junior D Eric Hallman (#6).
 
Remackel was swooping around the net and tapped the puck with his stick.
The puck hit Thomas and went in.  Hallman doesn't appear to touch it until
after that, when he knocks it out of the net.
 
You aren't able to clearly see Remackel touch the puck with his stick, but
I looked closely at where his stick was and where Hallman's stick was when
the puck was knocked towards Thomas.  Hallman's stick was still in the air
and did not seem to be as close as Remackel's stick was.
 
>Remackle never touched the puck; he was credited with the goal because he
>was the nearest CC player on an own-goal.
>
>The puck was not thrown into the net, nor was it a hand-pass (because it was
>the unfortunate UVM player who touched it after the swat, and not a CC
>teammate).
 
If Remackel never touched the puck, then he should not have been credited
with the goal - the rules provide that in a situation where a team puts the
puck in its own net, the goal is awarded to the last player on the offense
who touched the puck (Rule 15-d), not the player closest to it.  Thus it
should have gone to McNeill.  I believe the referee also saw Remackel touch
the puck and not Hallman.
 
>Thing is, I have now read several hockey-l posts and heard the ESPN wrap-up
>of the goal and read the Boston Globe review of the game, and nobody else
>on the planet seems to have seen that it was a Vermont player, and not
>Remackle, who put the puck in.  But there was absolutely no doubt in my
>mind on at least 2 of the 4 or 5 angles I have seen the goal from
>(inevitably, all the news and ESPN replays I saw featured the most
>inconclusive of the angles).
 
This is an issue that will probably never be settled.  I agree that there
seemed to be no conclusive replay.  But looking at it frame by frame, I'm
pretty sure that the sequence was: McNeill bats it down with his glove ->
Remackel taps it with his stick -> puck bounces off Thomas and crosses the
goal line -> Hallman sweeps it out.
 
I also just looked again at the accounts in the Cincinnati papers.  The
Cincinnati Post writes, "Colorado [sic] senior center Jay McNeill's initial
shot hit the near post behind goalie Tim Thomas, but McNeill managed to get
a glove on the rebound, sending the puck behind Thomas and to Remackel at
the corner of the net, and Remackel knocked it in."  The Cincinnati
Enquirer had an identical account.  Both accounts match what I saw on the
replay tonight.
 
BTW, McNeill was quoted as saying, "Uhh, yeah [it was a handpass], but it
went off the goalie.  I think it went off his back."  Remackel said, "It
definitely hit the goalie.  It hit the goalie and bounced off the side."
On the other hand, one would not expect the CC players to say that the goal
was really no good.
 
Oddly enough, at first I watched the replays with the sound down.  Later I
turned it up and watched again, and I was a little surprised that Mees &
Norton were adamant that the goal was good.  This was after I had already
decided that I thought it shouldn't have counted.
 
It was such a quick play that I suppose one can forgive the referee for not
catching it (I believe Taylor was the one near the play, behind the net).
But if I am right and the goal should not have counted, then it is too bad.
 
It is one of those things.  But in my mind, it does not take away from the
great performances by both Vermont and CC this weekend.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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