Hello list-
 
First, the Tennis Ball Incident DID occur (stopping it would have been like
trying to stop the tide form coming in) but was handled very well. After
Dartmouth's first goal, about 300 tennis balls came flying onto the ice.
Nobody was surprised, including the refs, so apparently things were discussed
ahead of time. An announcement was made asking that fans refrain from
throwing things on the ice as it might result in a penalty. Five (but no more
than five) Dartmouth players were allowed to help with the cleanup, which was
done in about 3 minutes. The game then continued without incident. Making the
announcement AFTER the balls were thrown worked very well. It presented the
attitude that this was not an important event (otherwise it would have been
made BEFORE the game). Also, making the announcement at the beginning of the
game would have seemed like a challenge in the minds of some. When the
Dartmouth players helped in the cleanup, it made the statement that they were
interested in doing the right thing and getting on with the game.
 
Now to hockey - Dartmouth has now won 6 of its last 7 games and with one more
win this year will equal its total of wins for the last three seasons!
 
             1   2   3   OT
Princeton    0   2   2   0
Dartmouth    2   1   1   1
 
Dartmouth totally dominated the first two periods, but only came out with a
3-2 lead thanks to spectacular goaltending by by the Princeton goaltender,
Rod Yorke. Yorke stopped several clean breakaways and a few 2 on 1 situations
as well. Shots in the first period were 16-6 in favor of Dartmouth and were
11-5 in the second period. The third period (shots Dartmouth 7, Princeton 11)
was a different story, however, as Dartmouth came out totally flat for the
first 15 minutes. Princeton got two quick goals - at 0:45 and at 1:57, taking
the lead 4-3. Dartmouth began to settle down a little and managed to score at
9:24 to tie the game. With about 5 minutes left in regulation, Dartmouth woke
up again and finished out strongly, ultimately scoring 2:35 into the OT.
 
REFEREEING: I have had some unkind words about Pierre Belanger in the past
(and who hasn't) and tonight will be no different. I don't know the exact
number of penalty minutes, but my guess would be that about 60-70% of the
game was played with men in the penalty box. With that many penalties, one
might think that the game was very physical - but this was not the case. By
teaming up with Mike Noeth (a referee I had not seen before - and hope never
to see again!), they were able to totally take the flow of the game away for
the players. Some calls were good calls, but many calls were missed. Some
blatent infractions (on both teams) were seen by the refs but not called.
Worse still was the fact that many random calls were made when no infraction
occured at all. These penalties seemed to be random events that had nothing
to do with the action on the ice. Both coaches were infuriated (deservedly
so) at one time or another and players (from both teams) would often stand in
disbelief at the calls. YUCK!!!. I hope nobody else has to endure this deadly
duo - it was one of the worst officiating jobs I have ever seen. The only
good thing I can say is that it hurt both teams equally and probably did not
change the outcome of the game.