I think "arguable" is the best way to describe what effect the O'Neill 
ejection had on the game.  I thought it should have been a minor.  There 
was definitely head contact, though I'm not sure how the rule reads with 
regards to hitting another player's head with your own.  Not only was 
UMD already ahead 3-1, but they scored 20 seconds later on a play that I 
thought had a lot less to do with Yale slumping from the bad call than 
it did from them having no idea how to stop Jack Connelly down low.

What bothered me a lot more happened tonight during the North 
Dakota/Denver game, though off the ice.  It disturbs me that the 
announcers managed to have an extended discussion about Matt Frattin's 
character without once mentioning the name Kevin Wehrs.  They also 
talked about what an inspiration Jesse Martin has been to Denver since 
suffering multiple fractures in his neck in October without ever even 
hinting at how those fractures happened.  As some folks know, I've 
switched my primary rooting interest to the Minnesota women's team, and 
followed women's hockey much more intently this year than I did the 
men's.  There were a lot of factors that led to this, most of them 
involving off-ice aspects of the game.  However, the WCHA's complete 
refusal to step in and do anything to rein in North Dakota before they 
seriously hurt someone was a part of the decision process.  The Sioux 
are out of control, and before any of there fans accuse me of Gopher 
bias, it isn't just us.  Your team has sufficiently disgusted a number 
of Minnesota-Duluth fans that I know that they actually celebrate when 
the Gophers beat you.  That takes a lot of doing, but you have 
accomplished it.

If the leagues want to stop dangerous play, they are going to have to 
actually make the penalties for it severe enough that it has a high 
negative value to all of the teams.

On 3/27/2011 10:41 PM, Mark Lewin wrote:
> Thats a lot of hockey to watch in one weekend.
>
> I keep forgetting how much Barry Melrose sucks!!!
>
> As much as the NCAA stressed contact to the head penalties this year, as
> long as each league maintains control over their own referees, inter-league
> play will be inherently unfair.  There were instances of pounding people
> into the boards during the Michigan-CC game with no penalty calls while, at
> the same time, an open ice check in New Haven may have arguably changed the
> outcome of the Yale-UMD game.
>
> Did anyone notice that the referees wear no names or identification as to
> which league they're from. I assume the referees were announced at the start
> of each game, but I missed them and the announcers never mentioned it during
> the play of any of the games I watched.
>
> I'm sorry, even if I have to agree with Barry Melrose, but that center ice
> hit by Brian O'Neill of Yale, was a clean hit.  Maybe you could argue it was
> a charging minor, but even on the replay, I didn't see any contact to the
> head.
>
> And the OT goal during the Michigan-UNO game?  If the referees had the same
> view of the goal line as the tv audience did, there was no way they could
> have seen the puck, let alone "conclusive evidence" to overturn the "no
> goal" call on the ice.  Its a good thing to bring technology into play in
> national tournaments but that call gives technology a bad name.  I hope that
> is some further explanation of what happened during that interminable
> sequence, but I doubt we'll hear anything else about it.
>
> I was glad to see that in every game I watched, the referees did not put
> their whistles away in the 3rd period.  If they called it in the first
> period, they called it in the third period (or even the overtimes).
>
> I really got tired of hearing how Miami got the short end of the stick
> having to go into Manchester to play UNH in the first round.  It didn't seem
> to have any bad effects on Jeff Jackson and Notre Dame.
>
> It may provide an advantage to a team to be sent to a regional near their
> home ice, but did you notice that there seemed to be signs of life in
> Bridgeport and Manchester but nothing but empty seats in Green Bay and St.
> Louis.  Having been to numerous regionals in Albany, I know its tough to
> gauge the size of a crowd since a lot of fans come for only a single game.
> It will be interesting to see the attendance stats for the different venues
>
> Doesn't it seem kind of ridiculous that hockey players (and fans) now have
> to wait two weeks for the championship, just so we don't "interfere" with
> basketball?
> Roundball semifinals are on Saturday and the finals on Monday night.  Whats
> wrong with with hockey semifinals on Friday and championship on Sunday?
> What are they afraid of, people not being able to attend both basketball and
> hockey championships?  Both sports sell out their respective arenas anyway
> and the games are broadcast on different networks so there's no conflict on
> tv either.
>
> Did anyone get a chance to listen to interviews with Paul Stewart (director
> of officiating in the ECAC) during the ECAC championships broadcasting?  He
> kept going on and on about how the ECAC encourages the referees to use their
> discretion calling (or not calling) penalties when the effect of the penalty
> has no effect on the play.  According to him (I'm paraphrasing here), if
> someone is hooked in center ice, away from the puck and it doesn't prevent
> the victim of the hook from a scoring opportunity, the referee might want to
> "let it go".  After listening to him,  I no longer wonder why the state of
> referees in the ECAC is as bad as it is.  He seems to want to
> institutionalize incompetence.
>
>
> I'm  getting sick and tired of putting up with people bad mouthing the ECAC
> and eastern hockey in general.  However, maybe we'll talk more about that
> next year, eh?
>
>
> I'm looking forward to hearing from people who attended each of the regional
> sites to hear their impressions of the arena and how the host city treated
> them and how the local restaurants and accommodations were.
>