(Do I dare to post to FLAME-L?  Sure, why not...)
 
Well, class, today in Rules for a Peaceful Life, we learned that in order to
avoid long, drawn-out, and ultimately futile arguments, one should not start
conversations on the following topics:
 
     1.  Religion
     2.  Politics
     3.  Abortion
     4.  Gun control
     5.  Overtimes in college hockey tournament games
 
(oh boy...)
 
So when you boil it down (and somehow "boiling" seems to be an appropriate
description to use here), what do we have?  Well, we have the NCAA rules posted
by Erik Biever:
 
>TIED GAMES
>SECTION 47
>
>a. If the score is tied at the end of three regulation 20-minute
>periods, the following shall take place (Exception: 6-48):
>
>(1) There shall be a two-minute intermission.
>(2) The teams shall not change ends.
>(3) A five-minute period shall be played.
>(4) The team that scores first wins and the game is ended. If a goal is
>not scored in the five-minute period, the game shall be declared a tie.
>
>-----
>
>TOURNAMENT COMPETITION
>SECTION 48
>
>a.  Where advancement in a bracket or the determination of a tournament
>champion is necessary, any series in a format (e.g., total-goals series,
>single game, minigame series) that results in a tie shall be broken by
>20-minute, sudden-death overtime periods.   The ice shall be resurfaced
>upon completion of regulation play.  The teams shall not change ends
>(except as indicated in Rule 6-44-b).  Third-place games may follow the
>overtime procedures as described in Rule 6-47.
 
And we also have the following from Steve Hagwell of the NCAA (and given all
the other stuffola that's gone on, I'm surprised no one has made the claim that
this was posted with a fake username):
 
>Not to take sides on the issue (especially on my first post), but Mr. Biever
>and Mr. Machnik
>are correct in stating that the 5-minute overtime should NOT have been
>played if the outcome of the game determined advancement in the bracket. In
>short, whenever advancement in a bracket is necessary (it matters not
>whether it's a regular-season or postseason tournament), a 20-minute
>overtime period must follow regulation play. The only exception to this is a
>third-place game given that there is no advancement.
 
I don't claim to be omniscient, not by a long shot, but the above seems pretty
straightforward to me.  For those who still believe that the 5-minute,
20-minute OT setup in the Ice Breaker Cup was correct, it should not be
difficult to find official documentation that would support this claim (and
contradict the above). And for those who cannot stomach the notion that there
might be an iota of a small chance of a possibility that the WCHA officials in
question might perhaps have sort of made a little bit of a boo-boo... hey,
don't get too worked up.  In the past several years, the Syracuse Invitational
has made a mess of this situation every time it's come up.  Do we play a
five-minute OT followed by twenty-minute periods?  (1996)  Do we play an
endless string of five-minute OTs? (1990 -- boy, is that excruciating to watch)
 Do we play a ten-minute OT followed by twenties?  (Actually, I don't know if
that one's happened, but I think I heard of it somewhere...)
 
     6.  Bands (ohhhhh, nooooooo!)
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95                                             DJF  5/27/94
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  JCF  12/2/97
"Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains.  Pretty violent
 image there.  I think if you've got a T-shirt with bloodstains all over it,
 maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem right now."
-- Jerry Seinfeld
 
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