Mike Burger wrote:
>A major to Tony Tuzzilino gave Michigan a power play in the third in
>which they scored the game winner.  The real Shegos did this game, and
>showed why he is the most hated ref in the CCHA, he doesn't favor the home
>team.  And only one minor physical assualt on this writer for cheering
>too loud from a State fan.  I won't press charges.
 
Sorry about the physical assault.  Some of our fans do get carried away a bit.
We see Maize and Blue and go berzerk.
 
Tuzzolino's major was justified.  MSU's problem was that they didn't capitalize
on the 2-minute 4-on-3 that proceeded the power play which Knuble scored on,
and with Harlton (or Gaskins, I don't remember which) breaking his stick, Berensgave his stick up and thus wasn't able to clear the puck from the zone before
Morrison picked it up and gave it to Knuble.  Too many giveaways in MSU's zone
(as they did the night before at Ferris) led to too many opponent goals.
 
As for Matt Shegos being the most hated ref in the CCHA, there is good reason.
He sucks.  Flat out, the worst ref ever to disgrace the face of the ice with
his presence.  It amazes me that the CCHA would send a ref of the "un-"caliber
as Matt Shegos to "not" ref a game of this magnitude.
 
This may offend some of the Michigan fans, but UM's first two power play goals
came on penalties that were gifts from Shegos.  Carter's hooking penalty in
the first period was a joke.  Knuble made an absolutely fabulous dive in front
of the scorer's bench.
 
The second period was really atrocious.  Shegos essentially fell asleep for the
first 15 minutes of the second period and didn't call a single penalty (when
they're could have been legitimate calls against both teams).  Once he woke
up, he called 4 penalties in the span of maybe 80 seconds.  The last two IMO
were VERY questionable.  Unless I missed it (and maybe I did) I didn't see the
infraction he called against Knuble for the cross check.  The second penalty he
called was unbelievable, for getting Guolla on an interference call with Turco.
 
Now I'm not saying that Michigan didn't convert the chances.  As a good team
should, they didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.  But IMO the power plays
never should have existed in the first place.
 
It's not like I'm expecting Kerry Fraser or Andy Van Hellemond to step out onto
the ice to ref a CCHA game.  But that doesn't mean I want Ron Hoggarth, Jr. out
there either.  It's hard to believe that the CCHA can't find a PeeWee hockey
ref out there somewhere who could do a better job than that piece of garbage
they gave us Saturday night.  You can only hope that the league finds some
excuse to give Shegos his walking papers, which of course means that he'll ref
the game in Detroit on the 18th.  That's my kind of luck lately.
 
But despite that, MSU found a way to lose.  The top two lines were shut out.
Michigan's last two goals came on turnovers in the Spartan end.  Mistakes the
Spartans can ill afford to make in big games.
 
Steve Klein wrote in yesterday's Lansing State Journal that, essentially,
Spartan fans should face the fact that UM is just better than MSU.  I beg to
differ.  UM was better than MSU on Saturday, February 4, 1995, the chief reason
being that the Spartans were sloppy with the puck in their own end.  At this
moment, MSU has the type of team that if it is on its game, can beat ANY team
in the country, no matter where the game is played.  They also have the type
of team that can lose or get tied by 80-85% of the teams in the country if they
make too many mistakes.  And Saturday night was full of mistakes.  And one
really bad ref, who always seems to be full of it.
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University 12-4-3, 17-7-3
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU (Shawn Respert- MSU's all-time leading scorer as of
Saturday night, Spartans' [#7 in latest USA Today poll] 8-1, 16-2 start best
in school history) who the hell knows when?