At the conclusion of the RPI-Cornell game, RPI  defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer
checked a Cornell forward into the boards starting a near brawl, which,
fortunately, was contained by the officiating staff.

The Cornell forward was down on the ice was a long period of time.  At this
point, I don't know the name of the player nor the extent of the injury.
However, Burgdoerfer received a 5 minute major for boarding (meaningless
since the game was over) as well as a game disqualification.

My curiosity took me to the rule book to find out what the distinction is
between a game misconduct and a game disqualification (other than the
obvious suspension for one or more games that comes with the
disqualification). The rules stated that boarding could be a minor or a
major penalty at the discretion of the referee based on the violence of the
contact with the boards.

However, I couldn't find anywhere in the rules any guidance as to when a
referee calls a game misconduct vs a game disqualification.  I've always
used a rule of thumb that a game disqualification comes from the referee's
perception of an "intent to injure" but I've never seen anything in writing
to back that up. In this specific instance, a game misconduct would have
been meaningless since the game was over.

Does anyone know what the guidelines are in the NCAA between assessing a
game misconduct or a game disqualification?