Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!
Overall I thought both teams played pretty well tonight, the Whioux a bit better. The Gophers had two main problems: they were too casual with the puck at the offensive blue line and it cost them on the first UND goal; and the finishing was lousy. They got the puck into great scoring positions all night long and then completely fizzled. North Dakota didn't have nearly as many good chances but they did something with them.
And I'd like to avoid talking about the officiating but I can't. It not only was horrible but also on several occasions bizarre. It started with the sequence that produced the second UND goal. It was scored on a delayed penalty but the totality was really weird. Milica McMillen was given a double minor for roughing and Sam Hanson got a single minor for roughing. The first issue is that it was a bad call. I have no problem with giving McMillen a roughing minor because she got her arms up and delivered a shot to Hanson. But the contact was initiated by Hanson on blatant interference, driving McMillen out of the play and allowing Jakobsen to cut in cleanly to the net. That's the bad part of the call. The bizarre part is that with a penalty on each team, the whistle should have blown right away, not allowing North Dakota to score on the delayed penalty. The only explanation I can think of is that there were coincidental minors for roughing after the whistle, but from my angle it looked like they had separated by then. So I have no idea what they were doing.
A minute into that power play, North Dakota's Sam LaShomb (every Gopher fan's favorite UND player) was given a two minute minor for checking from behind. I understand that there is such a thing as a checking from behind minor, so long as it isn't into the boards or the net. I couldn't see the play well enough to know if it really was a checking from behind call but, if it was, it did involve the boards. I simply have no idea how a checking from behind minor could be called there. It's either a minor for body checking (or boarding) or it's a major for checking from behind.
The second period ended with McMillen in the box on her double minor for roughing with 13 seconds left, with Nina Rodgers serving the two minutes; LaShomb still had 1:32 to serve on her penalty. I'm pretty sure that when the two minutes was up, it was McMillen that came out of the penalty box and Rodgers that stayed behind; I'm certain that I saw McMillen playing on the power play that the Gophers had. The whistle blew at the 17:53 mark of the third period. At that point, I saw Rodgers skate out of the penalty box and then the game came to a halt for several minutes with the refs talking to each other and to the coaches on both benches. The scenario that should have existed at that point was McMillen in the box for another six seconds (or until the first whistle after those six seconds) but she'd already been out of the box for a long time. It ended up with McMillen going back into the box until the next whistle. I'm pretty sure that what happened is that the penalty box official let the wrong Gopher out (and I'd bet that McMillan made it easy to make that error) and then the refs tried to sort things out but it took them a while.
Not long after that the Gophers had the puck behind the net and brought it out to Amsley-Benzie's right. The puck went into the crease, under Amsley-Benzie, and right to Dani Cameranesi on the back door with no one close to her and an empty net. She promptly deposited it into the net but the refs waved it off saying that they had blown the whistle, thinking that Amsley-Benzie had covered it. This was right in front of me and the refs absolutely got it wrong. That puck was never covered and even if players heard the whistle there was nothing any UND player could have done to prevent it from ending up in the net. I understand the rule about blowing the whistle when they can't see the puck but this was blown badly.
Then the refs called a minor for cross-checking with 4 seconds left in the game, after UND had scored the empty netter to make it 3-0. I'm not saying that it wasn't a penalty, because it was, but that's basically Spivey and Ludwig trying to put an exclamation point on the fact that they were completely useless. That kind of thing had been happening all game and to ignore it for 59 minutes and then call it once it doesn't matter at all is just putting up a flashing sign that says, "I'm incompetent."
We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully Minnesota remembers how to put the puck in the net.
I'd say overall the refs who have been doing the UW home games have not been horrible, which is an improvement. Other than Ducy (sp), he had a horrible game earlier this year with completely random, nonsensical, "I don't know what I am doing" calls. I have not see Langley and Wrazidlo (sp) this year yet. Are they still around? They were not good last year either.
