>After a particularly egregious fight in tonight's Vermont-Union game

Obviously I should have tried to pick up the NESN webcast. :-)

>the following penalties were called (snipped from
><http://www.collegehockeystats.com/boxes/muniver1.j27>):
>
>UNI-9 Jason Ralph (2-Charging) VER 2x7              4:46
>UNI-10 Bryant Westerman (2-Roughing) VER 2x8        4:46
>UNI-11 Bryant Westerman (5-Fighting)                4:46
>UNI-12 Bryant Westerman (5-Fighting) VER 2x9        4:46
>UNI-13 Bryant Westerman (10-Game Disqualification)  4:46
>UNI-14 Bryant Westerman (10-Game Disqualification)  4:46
>VER-12 Chris Hills (5-Fighting)                     4:46
>VER-13 Chris Hills (10-Game Disqualification)       4:46
>
>After the last four cancel out, we're left with a 2, a 2, and a 5 for
>Union.  Since Westerman's penalties have to be served successively, I
>would expect one of them (presumably the major) would be put on hold,
>and UVM would have had two minutes of 5-on-3 followed by a 5-minute major.

No, you've got it backwards. When a player gets a minor and a major at the same time, the major comes first. (Rule 4, Section 2, Subsection d, Paragraph 3)

So what you have, assuming no goals, is this:
4:46-6:46 Ralph's minor & Westerman's major+minor        5x3
         [2:00 and 7:00 go on the clock]
6:46-9:46 Ralph's minor ends, Westerman's major runs     5x4
9:46-11:46 Westerman's major ends, his minor runs        5x4

So if no goals were scored, it would be 5-on-3 for two minutes, and 5-on-4
for five more minutes. But the five minutes is partly the major, and partly
the minor.

> As it turns out, they scored on that 5-on-3 (at 5:35), and
>according to the TV announcers it was then 5-on-4.  And in fact a shot
>of the clock seemed to indicate 4:56 remaining on the major right
>after that.

At 5:35, Union had a minor and a major on the clock. In that case, Ralph should have been released, leaving Union with just Westerman's penalties in the box, for the remaining 6:11. (Rule 4, Section 2, Subsection c, Paragraph 3) The rule that the minor automatically terminates in this situation appears to be a new one.

In other words, mixing in the goal, here's what should have happened:
4:46 - Ralph's minor, Westerman's major+minor in the box     5x3
5:35 - UVM scores, release Ralph's minor                     5x4
9:46 - Westerman's major ends, his minor starts              5x4
11:46 - Westerman's minor ends                               5x5

The rule references come from the 2001 rule book as shown at:
http://www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2001_ice_hockey_rules_book.pdf


Hope this helps.

John
--
  John Edwards - Carleton (Ont) '96, Manitoba '00 - [log in to unmask]
               Carleton U. Football - Undefeated since 1998
The opinions expressed are mine alone, because everybody else says I'm weird.