> North Dakota 4 Wisconsin 2
> --------------------------
> Pierre Belanger and ? Seperated at birth?
> Bob, the homicidal maniac from Twin Peaks, in disguise.
The ref for this series was Buzz Schneider. I don't know if I
spelled that right. He also had a lot of help from the linesmen
making bad calls.
> Well I'm not sure who the referee for Friday night's game between Wisc.
> and NDakota was but he did a good imitation of Pierre. No need to go into
> a long rehash of the penalties but I should fill in the details of the fight.
> Halfway through the 2nd period Romaniuk gave a Badger a heavy cross-check
> after the whistle. All the players paired off and there were 2 or 3 minor
> scuffles. However, Pascall(ND) and Jason Francisco(Wis) eventually dropped
> their gloves and really went at it. No damage. The ref hauled Romaniuk,
> Pascall, Francisco, and Jacques Auger(Wis) to the penalty box. Then he tossed
> Pascall and Auger out--5 minute major, game disqualification, fighting.
> It never dawned on the ref that he had the wrong Wisconsin player. To add to
> the misery Auger also got a double minor and Pascall got nothing more.
> So N Dakota a 4 minute power play. Almost. A minute and a half later
> the ref called a ND player for some totally phantom infraction. Gee thanks
for
> the makeup call, ref.
Let me expand on this: After Romaniuk's cross-check, two definite
fights broke out. Fransicso was fighting someone (I think it was
Romaniuk), and Auger was fighting Pascall. The ref then tossed the
wrong pair: one from each fight. Although we can criticize the refs
for this, remember we have a much better view than they do. He
probably should have tossed all four players -- they all deserved it.
What I can criticize them for is missing the initial cross-check, which
was in front of everyone.
Francisco was judged to have "won" his fight. He was quoted in the
paper as saying something to the effect of "I was sure I was already
out, so I figured I might as well win it."
I don't know if it would have made any difference (Wisconsin really was
flat), but they sure got the bad end of a lot of calls Friday night,
including an offsides call (which on TV was clearly incorrect) made by
the *FAR* linesman, while the linesman on the line did nothing.
In the last minute of the game, Wisconsin's Andriga cross-checked
Romaniuk. The ref called it a major, "intent to injure." I don't know
about that (I saw it on TV, It was certainly a cross-check). Romaniuk
was injured (he was favoring his ankle, I believe) and did not play
Saturday.
The WCHA supervisor of officials was at the game friday night (Saturday
he was in Denver, I believe).
Saturday night the officiating was only a little bit better. Among
other things, the linesmen made one VERY bad offsides call, which
ruined a big chance for Wisconsin early. Icings were waved off very
inconsistantly.
Schnieder tried to call it close at the beginning, but was
inconsistant.
The game had a number of fighting or near-fighting incidents,
unfortunatly.
At 14:16 of the second period, Wisconsin's Harwell may have held ND's
Jackson. Jackson wrestled Harwell to the ice, sat on him, and started
punching away. Harwell did his best to curl up and protect his face (I
made a point to check this on the TV replay when I got home). Somehow
Harwell got a double-minor and Jackson just one. Even the linesman
seemed surprised, and looked like he was correcting the Schneider, but
he didn't change it. If there was a hold, it was no worse than a lot
that hadn't been called earlier in the game, and Schneider hadn't
called it before Jackson took Harwell down. Coach Sauer was extremely
upset.
At 11:31 of the second period, Wisconsin's Blaine Moore and North
Dakota's Marty Shriner erupted in a fight in front of the Wisconsin
band. The linesmen stood around for a long time before breaking it up.
Both were disqualified and got majors for fighting.
At 16:43 of the third period (with Wisconsin leading 6-2), Schulte
tripped Wisconsin goalie Duane Derksen behind the net. Schneider seemed
weary as he raised his arm to signal the delayed penalty. When Dirksen
wouldn't fight with him, Schulte skated down to the other end and
attacked another Badger (Tray Toumie, I think). The badger backed off
and raised both hands to show that he wasn't fighting back. The
linesman grabbed Schulte, who proceeded to punch and wrestle with him
for a few minutes (really!). He was given a minor and a misconduct
(ND's second of the period).
Question: can a player get a DQ for punching the ref, or only a
misconduct?
============================================================================
About the play, not the ref
===========================
Regardless of the officiating, the play's the thing.
Friday night, Wisconsin was FLAT, and ND's Couture was very sharp. The
Badgers had 2 power play goals (a good sign, since their powerplay has
been terrible this year), but ND had two power play goals and two
5-on-5 goals (if my memory is correct).
Saturday night, Wisconsin came out flying. They scored a powerplay goal
early (1:50) and really put the pressure on Couture.
Derksen got lucky a few times, including once on an impressive play by
Dixon Ward. On the powerplay, Ward drove through the slot and fed the
puck to Greg Johnson all alone at the left post. Derksen was already
down and out, but Johnson hit the crossbar and bounced the puck over
the net.
Couture also got a lot of help -- several shots made it past him, and
either missed the goal or hit the pipes.
ND tied it at 1:23 of the second on the powerplay (a bench minor at
19:51 of the first which wasn't explained at the time. The paper says
it was unsportsmanlike conduct, so someone on the bench must have said
something about Schneider, who had just missing an obvious call).
It was 4-2 after two, but Wisconsin was dominating. They put it away
with goals 27 seconds apart early in the third.
By the end of the game, between DQs and injuries, both teams had only
three lines, and looked very tired.
Keys to the game: Wisconsin was quicker than ND, put a lot of shots on
goal (Couter gave up a lot of rebounds), and got farly balanced
scoring. North Dakota's power play was held to 1 of 8, Wisconsin was 3
of 8.
Game Stats (from the Wisconsin State Journal):
==========
First Period
------------
Wisconsin Richter (Zent, Macdonald) pp 1:50
Second Period
-------------
North Dakota Shriner (Marvin, MacLean) pp 1:23
Wisconsin Zent (Hill, Macdonald) pp 2:35
Wisconsin Richter (Hill, Granato) pp 8:42
North Dakota Bombardir (Johnson, Marvin) 15:08
Third Period
------------
Wisconsin Hill (unassisted) 3:45
Wisconsin Toumie (Decker) 4:2
Saves
-----
Couture (ND) 13 15 10 -- 38
Derksen (UW) 8 9 11 -- 28
Attendance: 8644 (sellout)
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