Scores from 11/19/2010

Friday, November 19

AHA

Air Force 1 at Canisius 1 OT
American Int'l 3 at Army 9
Connecticut 2 at Bentley 3
Holy Cross 7 at Sacred Heart 2
Mercyhurst 3 at Robert Morris 1
RIT 1 at Niagara 4

ECAC

Brown 5 at Colgate 2
Dartmouth 0 at Quinnipiac 2
Harvard 0 at Princeton 1
Yale 4 at Cornell 2

HOCKEY EAST

Boston University 2 at New Hampshire 5
Merrimack 4 at UMass Lowell 3
Maine 0 at Boston College 4
Northeastern 3 at Providence 3 OT

CCHA

Miami 4 at Bowling Green 3
Western Michigan 1 at Ferris State 3
Lake Superior 2 at Michigan 7
Michigan State 2 at Notre Dame 6
Northern Michigan 1 at Alaska 1 OT

WCHA

Minnesota 6 at Michigan Tech 4
Minnesota Duluth 6 at Wisconsin 5 OT
St. Cloud State 2 at Alaska Anchorage 3 OT
Bemidji State 1 at Denver 3
North Dakota 6 at Nebraska-Omaha 5

Analysis

Bulldogs 6 Badgers 5 O.T. - Last night the Badgers and the Bulldogs played in a wild one as both teams goalies forgot to show up for the game. The game then ended with a horrid blown call and lot of controversy, one must speculate that WCHA official’s buffoons Brian Thul and Tim Walsh are going to be getting a call from Gregg Shepherd and possibly a reprimand/suspension from the WCHA. Here is what Coach Eaves had to say in the post game presser. s/t Andy Baggot.

Referees Brian Thul and Tim Walsh took their time conferring with the goal judge before confirming the sequence. Eaves said the final moments of the game and the lengthy discussion amounted to “the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“The referee in chief will clearly hear from us and that’s about all I’m going to say about this,” Eaves said, referring to WCHA supervisor of officials Greg Shepherd. [Read the rest of the article]

I caught the end of the game in question and it wasn’t pretty. Here is what happened: the Bulldogs forward Mike Connolly blatantly tripped a Badger defenseman Jake Gardiner player in the Badger defensive zone causing a turnover which the loose puck was picked up by Bulldog Defenseman Dylan Olson and passed to Bulldog forward Travis Oleksuk who then smartly put the puck between the legs of Badger goalie sieve Brett Bennett.

I know it’s easy to bag on the officials, yes they do have a tough job, but as an on ice official you have to call Mike Connelly for a trip on that play. A rookie ref in the house league up in Canada could make that call without too much trouble. Seriously, every week there is another controversial call that cost a team the game and makes the refs look like a bunch of bumbling buffoons, which have no business officiating intramural broomball at the high school level. While some will say that you can’t blame the refs for the loss, I am going to say that I disagree, if the refs make the correct call maybe the game ends in a tie.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the fans, teams and players to expect the WCHA officials to at least be competent and be able to officiate a hockey game without screwing it up on a weekly basis. One could make the argument that the Badger’s goalie didn’t stop the puck, but the play should have been called dead when the Bulldog forward touched the puck. The thing that really makes the official look bad was after the game I am sure they realized that they had blown the call so they decided to review the goal and see if there was anyway that they could wave the goal off.

I mean you have to give double kudos for the Bulldog players for continuing the play and scoring the goal in overtime as the Bulldogs continue to get the bounces in overtime.

Denver 3 Bemidji State 1 – I was able to watch the last two periods of the BSU and DU game on Fox College Sports and the Denver University Freshman goalie Sam Brittain was awesome in net for the Denver Pioneers again. In a season where the goaltending in the WCHA hasn’t been all that great, the Pioneers for the most part have found their replacement for Chevy in net.

Alaska Anchorage 3 St. Cloud State 2 OT – The hockey blogger from Delusions of Grandeur must have soiled himself after his beloved UAA Seawolves beat the SCSU Huskies in a midnight hockey game up in Anchorage Alaska. UAA Mitch Bruijsten scored at the 3:34 mark of overtime. Mike Lee from SCSU took the loss in net for the Huskies and his record dropped to 3-4-1 on the season.

North Dakota 6 Nebraska-Omaha 5 – The Fighting Sioux won a game after being down going into the third period. Matt Frattin continued his torrid pace as he scored his 11th and 12 goals of the season and is now tied with Niagara University’s Paul Zanette, both players have 12 goals on the season. That was the 22nd goal in the last 25 games for Frattin.

The game was the first ever match up between the Mavericks and the Sioux. The Maverick’s top line of Broadhurst, Hudson and Ambroz had 5 points on the night. The line of Malone, Trupp and Nelson had 5 points on the night for the Fighting Sioux.

Every week Goal Gophers predicts the series results for each WCHA series, this week Roman's side kick Austin Cumblad from the Minnesota Daily picked the Mavericks to sweep the Sioux. UND is 3-0-0 so far the past two weeks when being picked to be swept by one of the Goal Gophers writers. Personally, I would like them to continue making those predictions. [Click to view the article in question.]

Austin: I remember it clearly, Roman. We were sitting in the press box at Moosh watching UNO bully the Gophers in a two-game sweep [early this season]. "How good are the Mavericks?" we both asked. Well, they're still unbeaten in the WCHA and ranked fourth in the country. We have our answer. UND was impressive against the Badgers last weekend; 16 shots allowed per game? Seriously? That's some defense. But, I'm going with the unbeaten team until it backfires, so I'll say ... UNO sweeps

Minnesota 6 Michigan Tech 4 - Mike Hoeffel scored twice to lead the Minnesota Gophers to a 6-4 victory over the MTU Huskies. Apparently the crew at FSN doesn’t think it’s worth while going to Houghton, Michigan to see the game and broadcast it back to the fans in the Upper Midwest. The Gophers didn’t send their beat writer either.