My perspective from watching many a HE game is that referees have been very good about protecting the goalie, and differentiating between "running the goalie" and a player's hustle. Over the past two weeks, I have seen an opposing goalie go down twice, one eliciting a penalty, the other receiving nothing. The first instance that I am referring to happened in the Nov. 4 game between BU and Northeastern at Walter Brown Arena. The whistle had clearly blown when Brendan Walsh (?) charged the goalie. The officials immediately sent Walsh to the box for a five minute major for charging the goalie. Northeastern then proceeded to score two goals on the ensuing power play to make it a 3-2 game. Just this past weekend, in the Nov. 11 game against UNH at Walter Brown arena again, another incident occurred in which the opposing goalie went down as a result of contact with a charging BU forward, however, this one was not blown for a penalty. After BU had dumped the puck in, Chris Drury charged down the ice in an attempt to beat the defenseman to the puck. UNH goalie Trent Cavicchi left the crease and turned his back to the charging player as if he were going to block the rebound from going in front of the net. Cavicchi instead decided to freeze the puck, and spread his legs out wide to avoid allowing the forward to slip in and knock the puck away. Drury, now moving at full speed, had to make his turn to get around the net, and was given only about 3-4 feet between the post and Cavicchi's left leg. Drury inadvertantly brushed Cavicchi's pad, and Cavicchi went down. No call was made, and Cavicchi protested vehemently, to no avail. IMHO, I believe the officials made the correct call on both plays. These two circumstances stick out in my mind since they happened very recently, but in my eight or so years of watching HE (specifically Maine and BU), I do not recall any serious charging call which did not receive the proper punishment from the referees. If anyone else has, I would be interested to hear about it. What I am saying is this: Often times, goalies take liberties to stray quite a distance from the crease, where the puck is live for any other player. When said player then brushes the goalie in attempting to play the puck, the goalie then goes down and acts as if it were the biggest hit of his life. Just what then defines when a charging or interference call should be made, aside from when the goalie is in the crease? I am very interested in hearing how people respond to this topic. Sincerely, Tom Fortier BU '97 GO TERRIERS!!! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.