I'm writing all this based on radio play by play, so I bet someone who
attended can fill us in more.
 
More on the reffing (which was good last night, not so good tonight) later
in this message, but Kendall Sidoruk made UNO's save of the year tonight,
and UNO hung on to win 4-3 in front of a great sellout crowd at "The
Bullpen" - the Omaha Civic Auditorium. UNO was up 3-0 after one, but Air
Force came back with 2 in second. UNO went up 4-2, but Air Force came back a
little later to make it 4-3 on a shorthanded goal. Then it got interesting.
 
With under 2 minutes to go, UNO kept the puck in Air Force's zone and kept
their goalie on the ice. With about a minute left, Air Force was able to
break out and pull the goalie. They put some pressure on when UNO got the
puck and was moving up toward the empty net when UNO was whistled for too
many men on the ice. No dispute here, this should have been called. However,
the referee put some obscure rule into effect. According to the radio's
interpretation, it's along the lines of "If within the last two minutes of a
game or in overtime, if a team intentionally has too many men on the ice to
cause a stoppage in play, a penatly shot or optional minor penalty will be
assesed." Listening to post-game, a UNO coach said the referee said it's any
too many men on the ice penalty, so the rule book has a misprint it seems.
 
So Air Force took the penalty shot, and Kendall Sidoruk came up HUGE. The
crowd went ballistic, it was so loud that you'd have thought we won the
National Championship or something. It was about as loud as any Omaha crowd
I've heard, including the few Lancer games I've been too. Sidoruk not only
stopped the penalty shot(the first in a UNO game, btw), but made some key
saves while Air Force had the extra attacker.
 
Right about now I wish we had had tickets to this game instead of last
night's, but that's the luck of the draw when you split season tickets with
someone.
 
Onto the reffing. Adam(last name, not first) is going to the Olymics to
represent the USA as an official. I thought last night he did a superb job
of officiating. Tonight he had some at best questionable rulings. Besides
the above mentioned penatly shot, he also had 5 seconds added back on the
clock(as he did last night, but i never pay that much attention to the
clock), and earlier in the game called an intentional offsides on UNO, which
resulted in the faceoff being held back in the UNO zone.
 
Anyway, UNO is on a 4 game unbeaten streak (3-0-1), and has the week off
before heading up to Mankato State in a battle of the future WCHA teams in 2
weeks. UNO's next game at "The Bullpen" will be in 3 weeks, against Div II
power Alabama-Huntsville. Rounding out the season will be a road trip to
Maine, and then the season finale series against Mankato St. at the Civic
Auditorium.
 
Ben F.
U!N!O! U!N!O!
 
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