Ralph Slate Writes...
>In article <[log in to unmask]>,
>Glenn W. Gale <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>     In the third, Clarkson's J. F. Houle was felled by a cross-check (I
>>think from Pascoe - no penalty).  He was down for a few minutes, and
>>tended to by Clarkson's trainer and Coach Morris.  I hope someone who was
>>at the game can tell me that the crowd were chanting "Houle" (as they
>>might in Potsdam) when he finally got up and skated off, but it sounded
>>like a hearty chorus of boos over the radio.  I would consider this most
>>unfortunate.
 
>        Those sounds you heard were indeed boos - and well justified
>in my opinion. There was a penalty called on the play, if it's the
>same one I remember. The Clarkson player had a breakaway, with an
>RPI player diving to try to disrupt the breaking player. The RPI
>player's stick made contact with the puck, knocking it away, and then
>in the process knocked down the Clarkson player. RPI was called for
>a penalty. If I understand the rules correctly, since the puck was
>touched first, there is no penalty. The boos were at the ref.
 
     As Ralph mentioned, there had been a penalty called on the play
prior to and unrelated to the hit on Houle.  He would have us believe
that it took the fans several minutes (while Houle was down) to realize
that a penalty with which they didn't agree had been called against their
team, and this realization just happened to collectively dawn on the crowd
at the same time Houle got up to start skating toward the bench.  Either
way the traditional sportsmanlike relief that a player was not seriously
injured was absent.
 
>I saw the reply on the 11 o clock news. The RPI player was driving to the net
>with a Clarkson player defending him closely. The Clarkson player caused
>the RPI player to be pushed into the net. The goal was indeed scored with
>the RPI player in the crease, but the referee has the discretion to make no
>call if the player was pushed into the crease, which was the case. Also,
>the fact that the Clarkson goalie was down with an apparent injury should
>not factor in here because the play happened so fast that it could not
>possibly be deduced that he was hurt in the time frame allowed - it just
>looked like he went down to make the initial save.
 
     I'm letting this one drop, since I didn't see the play and virtually
every response I've received (via hockey-l and private notes) states a
different interpretation of what happened.  In fact, though they all saw
the play differently, the ONLY common factor among RPI responses is that
the goal was definitely legit.  Anyway, it counted and it's time to move on.
Congrats to RPI on the win and I hope the teams can meet again in the
playoffs.
 
Thanks,
-Glenn
>Ralph
>[log in to unmask]