PCM

Must've been a really bad slash.

Rick, did Ms. Greene happen to mention how Matt felt about sudo-reporters writing about his extracurricular activities?

Do it!

Vaht?

I know that he had it stitched up at least twice from slashes. As far as I could tell, most of the damage is to the inside of the joint, not the back side.

It's raining!

I rest my case!

We had a 5-on-4 power play coming out of that incident. If Manino would have been given a penalty, it would have been a 5-on-3.

The "spearing movement" or gesture portion of the rule only applies when an attempt to spear is made. All you have to do violate the rule is stab another player with the end of your stick blade, which is exactly what O'Leary did to Spirko. Whether it's intentional or accidental doesn't matter. In any event, if the ref didn't want to call it spearing, he could call it a high-stick worthy of a five-minute major because it was. Isn't the reason for having major penalties to discourage and deter dangerous play? It's exteremly easy to come up with reasons, excuses and rationalizations for not calling major penalties. Every time an official bypasses an opportunity to enforce the rules by calling a major penalty, he's sending the message that dangerous play is tolerated.

Under some circumstances, I could see it being called.

Great read, Mafia Man. I really enjoy hearing about everyone's expriences at the Frozen Four. If the Sioux make it next season and I go, I'm hanging out with you.

Let me take you back to this incident from 2000. Former WCHA referee Mike Schmitt called Maine's Corey Larose for butt-ending with 1:16 reamining in the Black Bear's game with Michigan. Maine was leading 4-2 and on its way to the Frozen Four. Larose said: Larose, a senior, Hockey East's sportsman of the year and the Black Bear's leading scorer, had to sit out Maine's game against UND in the 2000 Frozen Four. The Sioux won 2-0 and went on to defeat Boston College for the national championship. It took guts for Schmitt to make that call. The NCAA stood by it and refused to rescind it. Larose's intent didn't matter. It didn't matter that Comrie wasn't even injured on the play. But the message sent to players and coaches was very powerful. Engage in this type of play and it will cost you -- big time. Nobody seems interested in sending those types of messages any more. What will it take for college hockey to wake up? More serious injuries? A death? A lawsuit? It's only a matter of time.

Intent is not part of the rule. If you do it, it's spearing, no matter what the intention was.

I refuse to accept the blame!

First, let me say that I am not using officiating at the reason for North Dakota's loss. That isn't the point of this post. However, after what happened to Robbie Bina at the WCHA Final Five, I continue to be amazed at the state of officiating in college hockey. Here is an admitedly poor screen shot from the non-call when Spirko went down in the second period. As the replay was shown, ESPN's sportscasters said the following: In watching the replay, what happened is obvious. O'Leary attempted to intercept a pass at neutral ice. He missed and knew that Spirko would be heading the opposite direction with the puck and with speed into DU's zone. So he brought his stick up in an effort to give Spirko a hook and slow him down. Instead, the tip of his stick caught Spirko in the neck or just below it. I'm not sure where the referee was, but there's an AR close by looking directly at the play. He could have easily called O'Leary for spearing under the NCAA rules:

I'm not saying Denver was "clearly the better team." But the object of the game is to put the puck in the net, and the Pioneers did that better than the Sioux. They played the Sioux four times and did it better every time. There were three areas in which the Pioneers were better than the Sioux. The first, obviously, was goaltending. I'm not blaming Parise for anything because he played great. There were three goals (I'm including the empty netter) that he could do nothing about. But when Manino lets in only one goal on 43 shots, you have to give him full credit for playng better. The second was the ability of DU's defensemen (Carle and Skinner, in particular) to play like forwards at times and put shots on net from the blue line. They killed CC doing that and they killed UND doing it, too. Fuher, Jones, Schneider and even Greene tried to make similar plays, but they just weren't as good at it as Skinner and Carle. The third is the intangible factor of puck luck. DU had it in spades against CC and just enough against UND to make a difference. Part of the game is being lucky at the right times. That's why, as Jason Notermann once said, "Hockey is a funny game."

Geoff, meet Matt.

All I can say is: Yep.

From the INCH Frozen Four Notebook: The only proper response to this is:

Time to hit the hay. It's awfully late for an old fart to be up. Nice to almost meet you, Uncle Rico.

I own no pink ties, probably because I don't let my wife buy my clothes. I decided to switch to my off-season avatar and give Hockey Mom some competition in the cute avatar department.

Timing, as they say, is everything. I got out to the airport around 2:30 a.m. not long after the charter flight arrived. Was that "siouxyeahyeah" I saw parked and watching? Unfortunately, the plane was out on the tarmac and unaccessable to the general public. A UND bus drove up to the plane to unload the team. Their gear was loaded into a truck. Both vehicles took off and I headed back into town. And, yes, I saw "Uncle Rico" pass me in his red car on the way back. Three vehicles passed us and turned south towards the Ralph. Rico and I followed them. One stopped in the north parking lot. I recognized Cary Eades as he got out, so I pulled up to say a few words. I'm sure I triggered a "WTF?" moment when I stopped and got out of my van. I shook his hand and told him how proud he and the team made UND, Grand Forks and all of North Dakota. We only spoke briefly. I knew he was tired and probably wanted to get home. But he did give me a great line for my sig below.