This situation is a perfect example of why there needs to be someone
regulating statistics for college hockey.  First, a short recap.
 
Friday night, BU beat Merrimack, 10-4.  Merrimack G Martin Legault
gave up 4 goals in the first and then was pulled for Eric Thibeault
with the score 4-0 to start the second.  Merrimack cut it to 4-1, then
Thibeault gave up 3.  It was 7-1 after 2, and Matt Poska replaced
Thibeault to start the third.  Poska allowed 3 - score now 10-1 - and
then Merrimack scored 3 to make the final 10-4.
 
The game-winning goal, of course, goes to the player who scored BU's
5th goal - I believe it was Jay Pandolfo.  And the goalies who get the
decision are supposed to be the ones who are in net at the time that
the game-winning goal is scored.  Thus, since Thibeault had replaced
Legault, Thibeault should get the loss for Merrimack.  But I noticed
that it was given to Legault, and apparently this is the way it is
done by at least some of the teams in Hockey East - Legault's team
never came back to tie, so he gets the loss.  I can understand the
reasoning.  But then again, Legault did not actually surrender the
goal that caused Merrimack to lose - at least as valid reasoning.
 
What I'd like to know is, from those of you who are SIDs or somehow
affiliated with teams, how do you award the loss in this situation?
Do you follow the NHL (and generally accepted method, in my
experience) and award it to the goalie who allowed the GWG?  Or do you
give it to the goalie who allowed the goal that put your team behind
to stay?
 
I suspect there is a wide variance of opinions on this.  My experience
has been that there are almost as many different ways of keeping hockey
stats as there are teams.  There is no book like the NC$$ Ice Hockey
Rules and Interpretations that tells you specifically how assists,
goalie decisions, GWGs, +/-, etc. are to be kept.  So everyone
interprets this to mean that they can do it however they choose -
understandable, but wouldn't it be better to have a national agreement
on how stats will be kept so everyone is doing the same thing?
 
Even a better example than the above: we all know that assists go to
the last two guys to touch the puck other than the goal scorer.  But I
know for a fact that not everyone follows this.  Two scenarios:
 
1) Team A vs Team B.  A1 tries a pass to A2; puck bounces off B1 and
winds up on the stick of A3, who goes in and scores.  I've seen it
happen where the goal is given unassisted (instead of one to A1)
because it was last *touched* by an opponent.  I have always believed
it to be that it should have been last *controlled* by an opponent.
I will say that in most of my experiences, A1 gets the assist - but
not always.
 
2) A1 has the puck, gets checked into the boards.  A2 swings by and picks
it up, then fires a long pass to A3 who scores.  I've seen the goal
called A3 from A2.  No A1.  Argument is that A1 did not do anything to
directly cause the goal.  I can sympathize with that, but I don't
agree, and worse, this is a case of people making up their own rules.
I want everyone deciding this the same way across the country.  As it
is, A1 might pick up an assist at North Dakota but not at Yale on the
EXACT SAME PLAY.  (NoDak & Yale are examples; I don't actually know
how they score at either place.)
 
This should be very easy to do.  I know that I'm one of those people
who hates it when the numbers are wrong, and I wish there was
something that could be done about it to make stat-keeping uniform
across NC$$ hockey.
 
I would do something about it, but I don't believe it would make a
difference...unless I heard from a number of SID or similarly-affiliated
folks who believe I am raising good points.  My wish is that this
stuff would be incorporated into the Rules and Interpretations manual.
So feel free to pass this on to any of the members of the Rules
Committee you come into contact with...remember, it only benefits the
kids to have their accomplishments recorded correctly.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93
<<<<<< Color Voice of the (6-7-1) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>>