Eeyore <[log in to unmask]> writes:
 
>nasty.  Once again, I'm surprised that no one got tossed out.  This year's
>Showing Restraint Award has to go to Wyatt Smith; a scuffle broke out late
>in the third, precipitated by Nick Checco retaliating for an earlier
>vicious elbow with one of his own.  One of the Wisconsin players (Healey
>perhaps, but I'm not sure) dropped his gloves and helmet and, after some
>back-and-forth shoving, laced his fingers through Smith's facemask and got
>himself a good grip, appearing to do a fair amount of taunting as well.
>Wyatt did a fine job of keeping his arms at his sides and not cutting loose
>for the minute-and-a-half or so that this went on.  It didn't save him from
>a double-minor, but I was sure we had a full scale fight on our hands.
 
        Actually, the facemask offender was Troy Howard.  I was
watching the game on MSC with a Minnesota alum, and we were very
impressed with the precision with which the refs handed out penalties
after that scuffle, rather than just calling a bunch of offsetting
double-minors.  Quoting from the box:
 
>    UW-17 Mickey Elick (4-roughing)                                 14:37
>    UM-18 Wyatt Smith (4-roughing)                                  14:37
>    UW-19 Scott Sanderson (4-roughing)                              14:37
>    UM-20 Jason Godbout (4-roughing)                                14:37
>    UW-21 Troy Howard (5-grabbing the face mask)                    14:37
>    UM-22 Nick Checco (2-elbowing)                                  14:37
 
        After cancelling off the offsetting roughing double-minors all
around, the two leftover penalties are a minor to Checco for throwing
with elbow which started the fight and a major to Howard for his
extended taunting of Smith, which, from what we saw, was exactly in
proportion to what they deserved.  (Now if they'd only caught the
blatant elbowing on Wisconsin a few minutes earlier...)  We also noted
that Checco's retaliatory elbow was a departure from the smart play
from the Gophers in the few minutes preceeding: all their payback had
been handed out in the form of hard but clean checks.
 
        Oh, and one other observation: it's not really accurate to say
Howard "dropped" his helmet; Smith removed it for him. ;-)
 
                                        John Whelan
                                        Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/people/john_whelan/jphock.html>
 
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