In article <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
>Let's Examine the most recent weekend at RPI, shall we?
>
>FRIDAY, JANUARY 8: Princeton 4, RPI 4. A combined effort by Ammian and Hearn.
>        I did see some good deserving penalties by both teams get awarded, but
>        let's face it- RPI always seems to get more. Also I seem to notice a
>        lot of holding, tripping and hooking by the other team that never
>        seems to get called. At least one strange penalty called against us
>        resulted in a power play goal for princeton.
 
Rich, I can certainly understand your frustration, but why not take an
objective look at the officiating?  During the early part of this season I felt
very much the same way as you do, especially after watching Mike Noeth and
Melansen in action.  But I've come to the conclusion that officiating is rarely
the deciding factor in a game.  In particular, in this game the officiating
was fairly poor.  But Harry Ammian is probably the BEST referee in this area,
certainly in the Capital Distric Association.  He just had a rather poor night.
Kenny Z and I both came to that conclusion at the end of the game and Kenny
was a bit perturbed that Ammian had such a bad night.  But the key is for RPI
to start playing some better hockey.  In case you forgot, despite Neil Little's
two assists in the first period, he made the stupidest mistake of the game
when he left the net on a faceoff in the defensive zone to play the puck
behind the net and was beat to the puck by a Princeton player who fed it in
front to a waiting winger/center.
 
>SATURDAY, JANUARY 9: Yale 4, RPI 1: Cerbo all the way- I even forgot the other
>        ref's name. This Boris Badunov lookalike made more questionable calls
>        than the dastardly duo on Friday night! CASE IN POINT #1: A Yale player
>        severely checked our goalie- a major nono for which the penalty was
>        awarded, but then RPI got a DOUBLE MINOR!!!    CASE IN POINT #2: Will
>        somebody please tell me and about 4000 students and Capital District
>        residents in attendance WHY THE HELL WAS OUR FIRST GOAL DISALLOWED???!!
>        Even the Troy Record couldn't explain!  Cerbo did Game DQ a Yale
>        player, but by then the damage had been done.  I applaud the three or
>        four fans who voiced their displeasure right at Cerbo et al at game's
>        end.
 
I don't really know why you had a problem with Cerbo.  I thought his temper was
a bit short as evidenced in the third period when he threw out a Yale player
after giving him a minor penalty.  But notice that it was a Yale player?  The
problem in this game was that RPI couldn't score, something they've had major
problems with all year.  Yale got a few lucky goals and then managed to put the
game away when it no longer was a real contest.  I thought RPI played great in
the first period and a half and then just fell apart halfway through the
second after Yale got their second goal.
 
As for the disallowed goal, I'm not certain it was a goal.  Sure, the goal
light came on and I thought we had scored just like everyone else, but how
many times have we seen the goal light come on this year as the puck comes
squirting out of the pack in front of the net clearly not having entered the
net?  I know there have been at least two such cases this year.  After think-
ing about how the puck came out of the net so quickly on such a high shot, I
couldn't believe that it had ever entered.  It came out too straight and fast
to have hit any part of the goal except maybe the crossbar.  Personally, I
thought it hit the top of the goalie's stick or something but from my seat on
the far blue line it was hard to tell (I just got off the phone with Kenny and
he says that he has evidence it DID go in, but that's not really my point).
Anyway, Cerbo went to the glass and then talked to both the other officials
and the goal judge and decided that it wasn't a goal.  Maybe he was wrong, but
honestly I don't see how you can blame him.  Like I said, the puck came out
real straight and real fast and that is the toughest situation for a referee
to call.  Maybe you ought to try it sometime.
 
>
>
>Some issues:
>        Cerbo may be a relative newcomer to the field house, but I see Ammian
>more often than some others like Belanger. Shouldn't refs rotate more evenly
>and even between conferences?
 
A good idea, but whose going to pay for their travel costs, which can become
quite exuberant, and when will they travel?  Being an NCAA official is not
a profession in itself and most of the officials have other jobs that would
prevent  them from travelling on such a regular basis.  And besides, the whole
purpose of having officials spread around is so they don't have to travel great
distances all of the time.  And like I said before, Ammian is one of the best
so I really don't mind having him around (though I might like to see Noeth(who
BTW, got booted from the NHL) and Melansen disappear :-)).
 
>
>        Why does RPI always seem to outpenalize the other team? I can see a bad
>game once in a while (i.e. McConaghy working Harvard-RPI on 2/16/91) and like-
>wise a well-called game (i.e. Malinowski working Brown-RPI 2/2/91- 204 minutes
>of penalties evenly divided- a real classic) with games complementing each
>other in between. But everything seems one-sided against RPI in the 5+ years
>I've seen Engineers hockey. WHY??
 
I think you've basically answered this question for yourself.  You're an RPI
fan, you've been going to this school for 5? years, etc.  On top of that,
before Buddy showed up RPI played very chippy hockey.  But since Buddy they've
concentrated greatly on the skill part of the game.  I really don't think
that RPI has had too many one-sided games this year, especially if you check
the boxes.  And most of the penalties they've received have been warranted,
despite my objections to them many times.  (Rich, I'm the asshole who used to
stand up and yell at the officials during the first few games of the year up
in Section 16.  But like I said, that's history)
 
>
>        Incidentally, the other team usually seems to be much more aggressive
>and full of cheap shots.
 
True.  But not always.  Yale certainly wasn't that way.  They simply handled
RPI for the first few periods and then put it away with solid defense.  And
most of the other games haven't been to bad either.
 
The bottom line is that RPI needs to start winning games themselves and not
worry about officiating.  If they can start scoring two or three goals in the
first period and follow it up with a strong second period, they'll win some
games.  But it they keep playing the way they did this past weekend, it'll be
a short season.
 
Officiating rarely changes the outcome of a game dramatically.  How many times
this year have you heard Maine fans complaining about the officiating?  Not
too many.  Why?  Because Maine goes out and gets the job done, despite all the
obstacles they might face, which might include the officiating, something RPI
has not yet learned.  So Rich, stop being so critical of the refs and start
analyzing why this team is doing so poorly right now.
 
Daniel Orchard-Hays
RPI  '95