Here is another illustration of why I think the officiating in the WCHA is so poor; this was at the end of the first period as Denver Pioneer and Wild draftee forward Jason Zucker blatantly spears Chay Genoway in the midsection. I mean seriously, I don’t have a problem with the refs calling major penalties that’s fine but then when the other team commits an obvious major penalty in front of the referees the same standard needs to apply to the other teams as well.
Also, according to a Denver Post article Denver Pioneers forward Jesse Martin, is going to Minneapolis to have surgery on his fractured neck. Remember to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Grand Forks, N.D. — Most members of the DU hockey team flew to Denver out of Fargo this morning, but a handful of them went to Minneapolis with senior center Jesse Martin.
Martin sustained three neck fractures in Saturday night’s hockey game at North Dakota and was scheduled to have emergency surgery today in Minneapolis to relieve swelling of the spinal cord. He was taken off the ice Saturday in a stretcher midway through the second period after being checked by Fighting Sioux senior forward Brad Malone.
Malone, an Avalanche draft pick, crushed Martin parallel to the boards, as Martin was trying to skate the puck up ice, out of the defensive zone. He had his head down.
No penalty was immediately called, but while medical crews prepped Martin for the stretcher, officials gave Malone a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct.
