Well, it was a rematch of the North vs the South after almost 130
years! :) (Actually, we beat them 2x last year)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15: UAH- 1, RPI- 4.
Referees were Cerbo and McDonough for a second straight RPI game!
(OH NO!!!) 68 minutes of penalties were evenly divided between the two teams
at 34 min each! (9 penalties including 1 misc for each side) This is the first
game I've seen in quite a while where the penalty calls pretty much jive with
the general ice action, though it wasn't quite perfect. I did notice though
that Mc-D seemed to call more penalties vs. Alabama than RPI and vice versa
for Cerbo, so the two refs complemented each other. Interesting. I score Mc-D
an 8 out of 10 for his job, and cerbo gets a 4 out of 10.
Though we won, we didn't play at peak. This is division 2 we were
against- we should've won by at least 10 goals! But at least we won on Friday.
Fight of the game: Jon Pirrong (RPI) vs. Lampert(?) of UAH. Best fight
I've seen all year, with a couple of punches actually thrown, but still over
too quickly. Score: 5 out of 10.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16: UAH- 5, RPI- 5
This is a dangerous situation. I stuffed my face at this game with
hamburgers from the dining hall, a pretzel, chocolate and several containers of
apple juice. Such a poor performance by the engineers could've made me throw up
everywhere- on the players entering/leaving the rink via the ramp to my left
(man- UAH would never get near us then!), on those bratty kids who push their
way everywhere to stick their hands through the rail to grab the Engineer's
facemasks (each of them would get a bath from his/her mommy that night they
won't soon forget!), throughout section 33 (watch those RPI ambulance people
slip and slide!) and perhaps even over the glass into the bench area (new
polish for Buddy's bald spot!)!!!!
Yes, as you can tell, this was not just a BAD game, it was a BAAAAAAA-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD game!!!!!!! Not only did we play lousily, but we
used ONLY reserve goalies Carvel and Tamburro, the former of which injured
himself, and the refereeing stank!!!!
Carvel started and gave up three goals in the first 25 minutes, the
third of which was after he pulled a muscle in his left knee area and couldn't
recover for the quick save. Tamburro had a slightly better performance, but
not good enough to maintain the lead, after UAH put in their stronger goalie
to stop our offense. This was also an oversight on Buddy's part, too.
QUESTION- Why couldn't Buddy have started Carvel one night, and Tamburro the
other with Little available both nights for relief, if needed? We would more
likely have had two wins then.
REFEREES: Belanger and Noeth. After all these years, I can now
appreciate Jeremy's lamentations about this guy when he works Clarkson games.
(Belanger, that is.) As for the other ref- forgive him, Lord, he NOETH not
what he does!!! Here is the game penalty breakdown, the first time I have ever
kept stats like this-
BELANGER NOETH
UAH RPI UAH RPI
Minor 3 4 2 4
Major 0 0 0 0
Misconduct 0 0 0 0
Total 3 4 2 4
Total Minutes 6 8 4 8
UAH total minutes: 10
RPI total minutes: 16
At one pont in the game, the RPI/UAH penalty ratio was over 2:1.
Interesting because UAH was clearly playing a more physical game than RPI at
times. (Except fpr the end of the 3rd period and the whole OT period). I also
observed that for a 5:45 stretch in the later half of the game, we were
constantly down by 1 or 2 men, with no penalties called against UAH and THREE
successive ones called against RPI! Things that make you go hmmmm. I score
Belanger a 3/10 and Noeth a 2/10 for their subpar performances.
THE FANS THIS WEEKEND
Let me now touch upon another subject- critiquing the fans and the
band. The fans get it first. I am overall disappointed with their lackluster
performance too. Things are much less intense than three years ago.
Mellowness has no place in the game. (Funny, I should say that, I myself
haven't been half as fanatical as I was in the 1989-90 season, but I still
have my moments.) And the "Hey ref, you suck!" isn't totally valid anymore
since the two ref system was adopted.Fans should do what I have just begun to
do this past weekend- keep track of calls per ref to find out how each one is
doing, then learn their names and deliver catcalls to the appropriate
official. OR If they're both lousy, then scream "Hey, RefS- you both Suck!"
Also, know who is which official! In the 2nd game vs UAH, I heard one
knuckleheaded lass yell "HIT THE REF! HIT THE REF!" when the puck was
hurtling towars/near the LINESMAN!!!!!!!!! Finally, all fans should subscribe
to HOCKEY-L so that they may be more educated, and know the inside story of
some of the other teams, so that they can verbally pick them apart at the
games where it hurts. CASE IN POINT: In late 1991, the Lappin brothers from
St Lawrence alledgedly beat up a man from the town of Rensselaer while in a bar
up in Canton. This would have been PERFECT to use against them when they played
the following fevruary in the SLUt-RPI game at the Field House, HOWEVER,
despite the fact that this story also appeared in the local papers here as well
as on Hockey-L, no one save me and perhaps a few other Engineer fans picked
this up, hence a good opportunity was missed.
THE BAND
Much as I have been a fan of the Band these past 5+ years, I have to
say that the band's playing stinks at times. Their best piece on Saturday night
other than the national anthems was the cacophony of noise at the beginning of
the first period to disorient the UAH team. That bullfighting piece with
the trumpet solo on the end is what I perceive to be the least favorite among
the crowd. man, if hundreds of fans are yelling to "Shut the hell up!", the
guys and gals in red and white should get a clue! And they used to play
"Charge!" whenever an RPI player finished up his penalty and left the box.
The worst thing the Pep Band does nowadays is conducting the cheers. I rarely
hear the "Sieve...Funnel...Vacuum...Black Hole...etc." cheer anymore, and I
haven't seen their posterboard depicting the ref with glasses in a long time!
Unless they get their act together, I'm going to start wishing for an organ
to be installed in the field house for the use at college games, or maybe a
sound system to be used.
MISCELLANY
In Friday's game, some fan supposedly was using a whistle. I didn't
hear it, but were any of you budding refs responsible??? :) ..... On saturday,
another knucklehead threw oranges on the ice after an RPI goal. Fool- that's
UNION ya do that against. Someone doesn't know his schools. ..... To those
HOCKEY-Lers who think I don't show enough proof in what I say, will I have to
bring my Camcorder to games now to capture the moment, then make GIFs and
UUENCODE them so you can FTP them and view 'em? .... For those who have
criticized me at games, let me explain that i only yell at the ref after what I
feel to be a really bad call (usually once or twice per GAME), and I only flip
off an opposing player as he heads to the box after a roughing or fighting
call, or the opposing team's coach if he's really bitching out the ref. That's
not too bad, c'mon. My trademark is during the post-goal "1..2..3....we want
more.....sieve sieve " cheer, i stand on my front-row section 33 seat and bend
way over the glass such that my midriff is on top of the plexiglass and point
to the opposing goalie. At 6'3" and having a 8'6" reach, I extend over 5' over
the RPI bench when I do this. Not bad, huh?
FINALLY, THE REF POLL
My personal ref poll is this (and their scores)
1. McDonough 8/10 points
2. Cerbo 4/10 points
3. Belanger 3/10 points
4. Noeth 2/10 points
I'm starting up my own ref poll. Who do you think is the best/mediocre/worst
refs in the ECAC? Better yet, any conference. Include scores, if you can.
Definitely give me the ranking, ref name and conference!
DUE DATE: Tuesday, January 26 at MIDNIGHT (same as HOCKEY-L poll) and every
Tuesday afterwards, with publication on Wednesdays.
Send responses to [log in to unmask]
-Rich Vehlow, [log in to unmask]