I have seen a lot of college hockey games (mostly ECAC) over the last
29 years. In general I think the officiating has noticeably improved if
you take a long view.   I would not contend the officiating is perfect
or that Cornell has never won or lost a game because the officials
were leaning one way or the other.  However, when I have seen the
officiating influence the outcome of a game it is because the officials
were on that night calling one thing tight and that infraction
impacted one teams game much more than the other team.  In those
games I never blamed the officials.  I figured the team on the short
end either needed to adapt or if they could not then their game plan
was flawed in that it required a loose call on that infraction to be
successful.
 
If your team interferes a lot and the other team hooks a lot and they
are calling interference tight that night they are not likely to start
calling hooking tight just to even it out for you.  I recall a Cornell loss
to Harvard a few years ago where this was exactly the situation.  I
did not blame the officials although some fans were incensed.  I
understood that Cornell had to interfere to slow Harvard down and
contain them and at the same time Harvard was playing a pretty
dirty game with the sticks and getting away with it but stick work
was not on the officials mind that night.  Hey, if Cornell had been real
smart they would have switched over to the stick work and might
have had a chance!
 
--Steve Rockey
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.