Well now that I am over the pain of not seeing the games in person
(especially the two very good Minnesota games) I'd like to make an
opinion on the officating at the Frozen Four, and college hockey in
general.  From what I have seen this season, I think the overall
officiating in college hockey is on the decline, and is an issue that
the league presidents need to address.  In the three games at the Excel
Center the only crew I think did a competent, organized job was the
Sheppherd WCHA crew in the first game.  The Hockey East crew for the
Minnesota/Michigan game was inconsistent, wavering between a call-it-all
and a let 'em play philosophy.  Nothing wrong with clamping down on
chippy play to keep a game in hand, but the officiating in that game
changed the tempo in the second period as Michigan, and especially the
Minnesota defensemen, began to shy away from physical contact.  The game
became a little boring until Hauser's miscues in the final period put
Michigan back in the game in the waning minutes.

I have saved my strongest invectives though for the final game.  I think
the Pietrowski CCHA crew was terrible. albeit better than the ECAC's,
whose officiating has sunk to such depths they didn't even get picked,
despite having no teams in the Frozen Four.  (Is there a connection
here?)  Pietrowski starts out the first period by blowing his whistle to
cut down the physical play.  Maine was forced to back off from their
strategy of banging the Minnesota defensemen and especially the fleet
Gopher forwards.  After absorbing several penalties and finding
themselves on the short end of a 1-0 score resulting from a Minnesota
power play, the Black Bears noticeable backed off in the second period.
For the rest of the game Maine seemed to relay more on a chaotic crowd
the front of the goal type of offense instead of a bang-the-boards,
off-to-the races kind of countering strategy.

So fine Pietrowski has opted for a tight call-it-all style for the
Frozen Final?  Wrong.  Third period starts and Pietrowski swallows his
whistle.  Nothing is called.  Hardly any stoppages of play.  Although I
haven't seen a complete box score yet I can't remember more than a
couple of penalties the entire third period.  And Minnesota really got
away with some good whacks on the Maine players, particularly the
goaltender Adam Hauser.  Twice Hauser whacked the Maine forwards with
his stick, the first time in the face, the second time  a vintage Billy
Smith trip.  Pietrowski adopted the old skewed "call nothing" philosophy
for the rest of the game, finally using his whistle to end the game by
calling Maine's Schutte for a trip so blatant that the Minnesota player
flew about three feet in the air before hitting the ice.

Now before all you Gopher zealots fill up my mailbox with your own
pointed diatribes let me point out IMHO the better team won.  From the
very beginning I thought Minnesota's skill level was significantly
higher than the other three teams, particularly in defense.  Minnesota's
D's led by Hobey Leopold are probably the best group I have seen this
year, willing to gamble and pinch-in deep, but blessed with ample speed
to get back in position down-ice.  Minnesota's forwards I believe were
also faster than Maine's, repeatedly able to turn the corner against
Maine's very disciplined group of blueliners.  On the other end Maine's
speed guys, particularly Diemotrakis (sp?), really couldn't find much
space in which to create.  While Hauser made a lot of saves, and
certainly provided Minnesota the opportunity to win both the Michigan
and Maine games, I don't think Maine was ever able to make the nifty
passing plays which result in easy tap-ins.  Maine's biggest weapon was
the way- off- angle throw the puck at the net shot which resulted in
their second goal, echoing the second goal scored by Michigan on
Thursday.

But I still think the officiating was not of the quality I would have
expected for the showcase of the college hockey season.  Perhaps I
overgeneralize about the state of officiating in general, since I did
not see either of the western leagues this year, but the examples set in
the Frozen Four are not that auspicious, IMHO.  Coupled with the simply
awful state of ECAC officiating, and the mediocre examples I have seen
in HE this year, I think college hockey has to start thinking about
infusing some better quality into its games.  There has been a
relatively large turn-over of veteran officials in all leagues the last
couple of years, and the expansion which has taken place may also have
thinned out the ranks of quality officials.   But I think the leagues
need to set out some clear critera on how they want their games to be
officiated, and then work to groom some new crops of officials to fit
their needs.  I don't think this year's Frozen Four officials
represented their respective leagues very well (again the WCHA excepted)
and exemplify the declning trend of officiating in college hockey.
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Brian W. Morris
RPI Engineers
[log in to unmask]                                             Marc
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