In article <[log in to unmask]>, Ryan G Stone <[log in to unmask]> writes: |> |> On another overtime note: |> IS anyone else disappointed with the lack of penalties called in OT?? |> I can understand loosening up a little in overtime and not letting a power-play |> resulting from a marginal call decide the game. HOWEVER, the blatant punch to |> the head delivered by Michigan's goaltender (Turco) to a Maine forward after the |> whistle was outrageous as were many other "TACKLES" made by both teams, many |> times stopping good scoring chances. It has always been my opinion that a |> penalty in the first minute of a game should be called at any other time during |> the game. I thought that all the way through the game this was not the case. |> The officials would let a play go and a m,inute later the identical play would |> happen and a penalty would be called (right at the beginning of the game this |> happened). Maybe the officials just had a bad night, anyway, their no-call |> menality probably was one of the reasons we witnessed the longest game. Without |> the hooking, holding and tackling, IMO, the game wouldn't have made it past the |> first OT. |> Before I say anything, I'd just like to say that the Michigan team is a class act. Even as a die-hard UMaine fan, I really feel for the players and the coaches. Back to the topic at hand ... Clearly, both teams were guilty of committing penalties that were not called. It has always been said that the reason why refs don't make these calls is that they don't want to directly influence the outcome of the game. I've two problems with that, (1) the ref doesn't commit the penalty ... the guilty player does, and (2) more importantly, NOT calling a penalty can directly effect the outcome of the game. While there were examples that occurred for either team, the one freshest in my mind was a no-call against Michigan. Shermerhorn (I think) was carrying the puck out from behind the UMaine net when he was hooked/hauled down. Michigan got the puck and one or more shots on net. What if the puck had gone in and Michigan had won the game? A clear (seemed that way to me ... a biased UMaine fan) example of how not calling a penalty can have a direct effect on the outcome. The reason why I remember this one instance is that Walsh was very upset/vocal on the bench immediately following the next stoppage in play. I repeat, there were instances where UMaine got away with similar infractions (i.e, Imes on either Morrison or Knuble on a partial breakaway). I agree that one of the contributing factors that influenced the length of the game was that the refs "all but refused" to call a penalty from about the 15:00 mark of the 3rd period. -- REcursive thanks, Steve Philbrick [log in to unmask] UMaine Department of Computer Science 237 Neville Hall, Orono, Maine 04469 TEL: (207) 581-3942 "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it." -- Stephen Wright ==========================================================================