Re: NCAA Quarterfinal: Plattsburgh @ Middlebury
For those of you who saw the Midd/Plat game; I have posted this in the "refs absent without leave" thread. Your thoughts are welcomed.
Was online last night reading about the games: except for Oswego/Bowdoin, I wish I was there, particularly the two OT games. A little later in the evening I took a look at the scoresheets and a few things in the Plat/Mid game caught my eye.
A "shooting after the whistle" penalty in a Natioanal Quarter-Final Game?? Really?? Against Midd. Interesting. That was at 14:16 of the first with Plat up 1-0.
Then Midd scores at 16:06 of the second to make it 2-1 Platt and 30 seconds later, the refs work Plat into a 5 on 3 PP with calls against Midd at 16:36 and again at 17:06!
I wasn't there so if anyone was I would appreciate your take on this. Midd is not the team I follow, but the team I do follow plays Midd every year so I am very familiar with the cast of characters wearing the stripes. This pattern of penalties is exactly what I have seen occur year after year in cases when the refs seem to inexplicably decide to get involved in the outcome of the game.
A ridiculous, or unusual call. A "too many men" call on a line change that looked exactly like every other line change in the game. A "shooting after the whistle" call. The wrong team builds some momentum and we get a "crease violation" call out of the blue to slow things down a bit. The wrong team is getting back into the game; how about a 5 on 3 to settle things down a bit?
Again, I wasn't there so if anyone was, please chime in. But I also won't be surprised if the Plat folks think the refs did a great job, and the Midd folks disagree!
If I were to grade the officials performance in last nights game, it would be in the C category...
I thought that they kept a good flow to the game in minimizing penalty calls as, from my perspective, should have been called on both sides...
That being said, the shooting after the whistle call was not a good call in that it was a close play at the blue line which the official called Middlebury offsides with the shot coming right after the whistle...because it was a close call, the crowd roar obviously impeded the Middlebury player from hearing the whistle. That is a tough penalty to call in a game of this magnitude.
Secondly, the charging penalty called on Middlebury with under three minutes
to go and the score tied, was also not a very good call in my opinion. Yes, the Middlebury player made contact with the Plattsburgh goalie after being checked into the goalie from the Plattsburgh defense...again, a tough call at that juncture of the game.
A moot point maybe, as the Middlebury penalty kill unit did their job on both penalties...
The only other area in which I thought the officials struggled were obvious offsides, again by both teams, that were missed.
In summarizing, I agree the officiating I have witnessed this year in particular is not as good as I have seen in previous years...
That being said, it was not the officiating that decided last nights game...I thought Plattsburgh played a near perfect game, both offensively and defensively...they capitalized on their scoring opportunities and they did an excellent job minimizing Middlebury's scoring chances.
I think that Plattsburgh would have won this game in regular time if not for the outstanding effort of John Yanchek in net for the Panthers.
In closing, good luck to the Cardinals in Lake Placid and a big thank you to the Middlebury Panthers for an exciting season and to the seniors, John Sullivan, Charlie Townsend, AJ Meyer, and Max Kennedy.