Matt Rein #3 writes:
{woofing deleted, although I agree completely!  :-) }
> One question about Saturday night's game to anybody who was there.
> The disallowed goal that Jeff Nielsen put in the net puzzels me.  Woog had
> the puck high on the left side.  The Gophers were on the power play.  Nielsen
> was tied up with McDonald in front of the net.  Nielsen and McDonald were
> trading cheap shots all night so it wasn't too big a deal to see them locked
> up in front of the net.  All of a sudden Nielsen breaks free, Woog lays a
> pass right on his stick and Nielsen puts the puck away.  THEN Ames (spelling)
                                                                ^^^^
that's spelled "B-r-u-t-a-l B-o-b"
 
> disallows the goal.  He calls Nielsen for interference or something and sends
                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^
it was holding, of all things. Why Nielsen would want to be holding onto the guy
when WE have the powerplay...
 
> him to the box.  Now finally my question.  If the Gophers (Woog) had control
> of the puck, why didn't the ref blow the play dead at the time of the
> infraction?  How come the penalty appeared magically after Nielsen scored
> the hat trick?  Hmmm.
 
Actually, this wouldn't have been the hat trick yet, this was only the second of
Nielsen's three goals.  Nielsen's extremely talented, I guess.  He can hold on
to a guy who's a couple feet away while simultaneously having both hands on his
stick to redirect the puck into the goal.
 
(In case the sarcasm of that comment hasn't already alerted you, what follows
is, I'm afraid, some ref-bashing.)
 
I've been calling Ames "Brutal Bob" for two and a half seasons now, but I've
always thought that his so-called reffing didn't really favor any team in a
particular game, except insofaras the rough style that comes about as the
players begin to recognize his inconsistent penalty-calling (and realize they'll
have to "enforce" the rules themselves) favors a physical team over a skating
team.  Any infraction in a game reffed by Ames has only some probability of
being called.  I suppose for most refs there is some probability they will miss
a call, but with Ames, the probability of a call is no higher for a blatant
slash than for a little push, and I don't think it's much above 50%.
 
(Warning: the next paragraph contains ref-bashing, league-official-bashing, AND
partisan comments.)
 
The way things turned out Saturday night, however, I think Ames' calls and
non-calls DID turn out to favor Northern.  (Even Comley admits to seeing that
spear by Carpenter in the first period that went uncalled.)  Fortunately, the
Gophers played well enough to prevent Brutal Bob from being the deciding factor
in the game.  The real shame of it all is that the WCHA didn't see fit to send a
better ref to a series in which first place was at stake.
 
Pam Sweeney                            Go Gophers!!!
[log in to unmask]         1993 WCHA Playoff Champions!!!
[log in to unmask]              Ski-U-Mah!!!