redwing77

A lot of it has been said but the officials are not here to make things even. They are not on the ice to be a part of the game at all. Their position, as I stated in my letter, was to enforce the rules in a professional, consistent, and fair manner and to protect the players on the ice from undue injury. THAT'S IT. I don't care if the home team is undefeated and the away team is winless and pathetic. The fact that the one team is winless shows many things about the team and its recruiting practices, but not that they've not gotten their fair chance on the ice. And just because the home team is undefeated doesn't mean that they've gotten every break in the book. Teams out there are going to better than others. That's just how it is. Upsets are to be earned, not given away. If a ref feels ANYTHING towards any of the teams on the ice, that ref should not be officiating. His job is to be impartial to the extreme, like every game he skates is the first game of the season and the importance to BOTH teams like a playoff game. And the rulebook I'd use is the NHL rulebook modified for college. If the NHL's officiating is working so well (which IMO it is) then I suggest we use it. And I meant it about suspensions. Players that go out to try to injure another player shouldn't play for a game or two.

Stafford passed to Eaves, I believe, in his own zone and then simply rushed the net afterwards. At least that's how I think it went. Stafford got it going, Eaves set it up, and O'Sullivan put it in the twine. Stafford's assist vs. Parises non-assist: Parise's non-assist was more obviously an assist.

Brandon Bochenski is named WCHA co-offensive player of the week along with Chris Conner of MTU. Not sure if he'll be back to back USCHO but that would be spiffy-cool if he was.

Where do you find this information? I would be interested to see who those are... And I thought I heard Bertram's name...somewhere.

I went to the USCHO site. Spirko is currently the leading goal scorer and second in points. However, he is rather small (5'9" 175). I am interested in Bill Thomas, who is a teammate of Spirko. He's got 19G 12A, +19 (tops in the USHL), and he is 6'1 185. However, being that he is from PA, I suspect (if he hasn't already been recruited) that he'll go out east.

I was hoping for UNH to come back. That way if UND plays them in the NC game, everyone scores! Parise gets a hatty... and I mean JORDAN! As for predictions, one step at a time. Right now I predict UND to make the NCAA Regionals and they will be the team to beat in the WCHA tourney. Who wins? Dunno. The urge to get ahead of myself is there though.

Are media guides available for the public? I'd love to get my hands on one.

New Jersey is Frugal and patient. If you want cheap: How about the Minnesota Wild?

They never said during the broadcast but all indications say that he did. Stafford also got an assist on the second goal.

Oooh you ruined it for me.

Ok, I'm taping it off of Fox Sports Net. I am trying (though somewhat unsuccessfully) to eliminate the commercials. I don't have any means to edit the tape but I am willing to send the copy to whoever needs it provided I'm compensated for shipping and I eventually get the tape back.

Editted to eliminate my name. ************************************************** I am writing now to voice my concern over recent events over the past few years that put risk to the longevity of the WCHA as the premiere NCAA DI hockey conference. I have been a fan of hockey since my freshman year of college (1995) and from there, moved on to being an avid fan of the NHL as well. One of the things I have noticed as a big difference between the NHL and the WCHA in terms of game play is not the players on the ice. It's not the venues or even the ticket prices. It is the officiating. In the NHL, I see penalties being called all the time when an infraction is made or there is a play that commences that could (or did) result in the injury to a player. This is not so apparent in the WCHA. I am not going to point fingers or say anyone needs to be fired. I really cannot make those decisions, but I can urge you to help prevent all the premiere players from seeing the WCHA as a poor place to play and then heading to major juniors. Worse still, make the decision to do that or go pro before they graduate for reasons other than the money. After last weekend's series, I feel Zach Parise is in danger of doing just that: signing with the Devils to prevent himself from getting injured. Too long have the officials overlooked teams play against star players, not just Parise. However, when Parise came to the ref on Saturday bleeding from his neck and there was no call on his behalf, I fear that opposing teams will view this as precedent on how much they can get away with against the Sioux and then do some real damage with only the threat of a minor penalty at best. The officiating must change. They must improve to not only enforcing the rules of the game in a professional, consistent, and fair manner; but also improve in such a manner to discourage attempts to injure players star or otherwise. Objectivity is becoming more and more questioned among my peers when it comes to officiating and I am concerned that I may hold the same grudges when I head to the arena to cheer my team on. Looking at trends, "clutch and grab" hockey, as it has been termed by my peers, has become more and more common with less calls being made regarding that and more calls regarding personnel infractions (too many men on the ice) taking its place. This must change. I suggest suspensions be handed out by the front office if the player is deemed to be attempting to injure the players. In other news, I suggest that the refs get paid more. I am unsure if the poor pay is anything related to their poor performance, but I do believe that they are forced to put up with a lot for very little. I also suggest younger head refs that have a better chance of skating with the pace of the game. Too many noncalls and bad penalties have been called because the ref simply could not catch up with the players. And lastly, give more officiating duties to the ARs. They should not feel any angst about calling a penalty if they see one. Especially if it is overt or a potentially injuring play. Please protect our players. Make the WCHA an appealing place to play. If the reputation comes down that the WCHA is the fairest officiated best conference to play in, then we will get more quality players, more coverage, and less early turnover. I truly believe that. Thank you for your time. ******************************** I think I did a good job, but I suppose, rereading it, there is room for improvement.

I sent a message. Quite proud of it too.

Streak ends at almost 7 minutes into the game vs. Atlanta. Total minutes 332:01 of shutout hockey. Game ends in a 1-1 tie.

I agree about Greene. THat was a bad penalty he took that produced that 5 on 3, but remember, if the officiating was decent, it would have only produced a 5 on 4. Also remember, they scored with 12 seconds left on the penalty to Smaby, so they did a decent job until AA scored. However, did anyone notice that both Smaby and Greene came out of the box despite 24 seconds being left on Greene's penalty? I thought that, on a 5 on 3 PP, if they score, one player comes out of the box resulting in one man down. As for Smaby, I'm wondering if he's just under a lot of pressure. I mean, he's rather young jumping in on a team that has far more expectations about defense than offense (not that there are no offensive expectations). He IS going to make mistakes, only defensive mistakes are much more visible than offensive ones. Murray has made mistakes and so has Porter and Bina. Ok, there aren't very many expectations laid on Bina (especially by Federov), but I really think there are heaps of expectations on Smaby. Let him make mistakes, they all make them. Greene made stupid penalties (with some ref help) his freshman year. I think Smaby will return next year a bigger better player, especially (if you can believe it) he sticks next to Schneider and Greene with his footwork. Also, Brad Berry is an ex NHL defenseman and he can help too.

Are you saying that refs in the WCHA are totally unbiased and have no opinion about UND? They don't read the stat sheets and they don't talk to other refs about reputations of the players on UND's club? I beg to differ. Adam told Schneider and Greene that they were "maturing" faster this season. What? You mean, you were TARGETTING Greene because of some of the stupid penalties he took. No, I'm not saying Greene didn't commit any penalties legit or stupid, I'm saying that the refs waited for him to get close to another player before raising their hand. Yes, man, they plainly target certain players in the league. Now, about UAA, a team that got ROYALLY stomped all of last season comes into the Ralph as a sort of jaded "Cinderella" story of the WCHA this year. Don't you think the refs gave them the benefit of the doubt this weekend? UND is so much better than UAA it's scary. The refs seeminly don't want it to turn into such a rout where the players are demoralized. So all the breaks go the way of either noncalls or simply only calling them for blatent penalties. Did they cause us to tie yesterday? I may have posted that they did before, but further reflection makes me say they had an indirect effect on the score, but not a direct one. The refs go out on the ice to enforce rules and protect other players from injuries. In my opinion, they barely did the first and did nothing of the sort on the second.

I was so livid after the game that I wanted to go to Blais and tell him that if he went on the record and blasted the refs, I'd pay for the fines personally. Then I realized that A) He wouldn't have listened to me and B) I don't have that kind of money anyways.

I find that hard to believe. Nearly has hard to believe as the fact that UAA had more penalties today than we did tonight... and that was 7 to 6. That means either someone can't count or the game went a lot faster than I thought.

Don't kid yourselves folks, Both goals came courtesy of Mason. The first was a supposed penalty (I can't remember which one, there were so many called on us and so few against them) and the second was icing but Mason and his crew decided to give Alaska the benefit of the doubt. And the cheapshot on Parise that drew blood. 2 minute penalty. Good. If Greene had done that to Fournier I bet you at least a double minor but most likely a major. This game we should have won. GOD I thought Sheperd was awful. Will we move down in the polls because of this?

Good odds it was Green.

Didn't work. DOn't have password access.

I just think that 49 wanted to grope Greene. They don't have many women on campus up in Anchorage so he has to be "opportunistic."

Honestly, Murray scored twice, true, but I thought Parise had a really good game. His stick handling and forecheck/backchecking skills are, to borrow a phrase, "Goose bumpy good." He made some moves towards the end of the game that the people around us hyperventilating it would seem.

You know, I could just do some lame one word posts like I've seen lately on USCHO.com and then I could catch up to you all

You know what I think they should do? Start auctioning off autographed broken sticks a la Matt Greene. He breaks enough of them, have him sign each one or have the team sign it and then auction them off. Or raffle. Sell it somehow.