Since we just had our discussion of various views of officiating and how
being fans of a team may affect folks' perceptions of game actions--
 
I conducted a sort of experiment myself last night.  I WATCHED the
telecast of the Northern Michigan-Minnesota game from Minneapolis last
night.  Part of the time I LISTENED to the MSC  network broadcasters'
commentary, and part of the time to the local Marquette radio
announcers' version.  Guess what--the Minnesota announcers tended to
complain a lot about the penalties which weren't called on the Wildcats,
and the NMU announcers groaned about the ones which weren't called on
the Gophers.  When I was able to suppress my own fandom (which
admittedly isn't easy) and view the telecast from something of a neutral
perspective, I'd have to say that I didn't see any uneven officiating.
I'm sure it's easy to find examples of things which occurred which COULD
have been called but weren't, and a number of examples of such cases,
involving both teams, appeared on the instant replays.
 
Just to admit I'm as human as anyone else, I'll report that I finally
decided to devote most of my listening to the radio broadcast.  If both
versions are going to be biased, might as well be with the bias which is
also mine, right?  ;-)
 
Two other observations.  There are advantages to watching on TV, if the
camera work is good, and it was very good on the MSC 'cast.  The
game-winning goal--which had to be the flukiest GWG in the league this
year!--when viewed "live" seemed a horrible misplay by the NMU goalie.
The replay, from a different angle, made it obvious that the airborne
clearing pass Bobby Dustin sent toward the Wildcat net from midice was
batted    by NMU defenseman Steve Woog and that caused Corwin Saurdiff,
who had come out of the net to stop it, to be unable to catch it.  (That
it was a clearing pass, and not a shot, was obvious from Dustin's move
to the bench after he sent the puck on its way; he had his back turned
when the goal was scored.) Anyway, I went in five seconds from screaming
in disgust at Saurdiff to wailing about the fickle finger of fate.
 
The other thing--and I've noted this on the occasions when I've listened
to the radio broadcast while attending games in Lakeview Arena--is that
the Wildcat broadcasters are extremely accurate and quick in their
description of the action (even if they're as biased as anyone else in
their commentary on penalties).
 
Oh for one less deflected pass--and one more second on the clock!  :-)
 
 **********************************************************************
 *  Steve Christopher, NMU  [log in to unmask]             * * * *    *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions  1990-91   *   GO   *   *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92           *        *
 *  WCHA League Champions 1990-91                        * 'CATS! *   *
 *  WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 . . .   * * * *    *
 **********************************************************************