(left) The Right Honourable Bill Hudson, the faculty representative from St. Cloud State University and chair of the powerful WCHA executive committee, will oversee The People vs. The State of Wisconsin Athletic Department From: Wisconsin State Journal
by Andy Baggot
We've not heard the last about that controversial loss the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team suffered over the weekend.
The school took the unusual step of filing an official appeal with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association late Monday afternoon, seeking, at minimum, a review of the procedures and circumstances surrounding a 3-2 loss Friday at Denver.
"I think we have to go through the due process," UW coach Mike Eaves said Monday afternoon during his weekly press conference. "We would not be diligent in not doing that."
At issue is a decision by WCHA referee Randy Schmidt to disallow an apparent last-second, game-tying goal by Badgers senior right winger Matthew Ford.
A witness said Schmidt took a cursory look at one frame in his review: the one where the clock showed 00:00. That overhead shot showed the puck in the crease.
According to a source, the UW appeal asks that a point be awarded to the Badgers, which could turn out to be extremely valuable in the league standings. Six teams currently are separated by six points behind first-place Colorado College and second-placed Denver.
Doug Spencer, the WCHA associate director for public relations, said Monday that McLeod was traveling between Nashville, Tenn. — where McLeod was attending the NCAA convention — and his home in Denver. Spencer has worked with the league for 22 years and couldn't recall a step like this being taken by a school.
"We acknowledged our error," he said. "Everybody regrets what happened, but we move forward."
The school took the unusual step of filing an official appeal with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association late Monday afternoon, seeking, at minimum, a review of the procedures and circumstances surrounding a 3-2 loss Friday at Denver.
"I think we have to go through the due process," UW coach Mike Eaves said Monday afternoon during his weekly press conference. "We would not be diligent in not doing that."
At issue is a decision by WCHA referee Randy Schmidt to disallow an apparent last-second, game-tying goal by Badgers senior right winger Matthew Ford.
A witness said Schmidt took a cursory look at one frame in his review: the one where the clock showed 00:00. That overhead shot showed the puck in the crease.
According to a source, the UW appeal asks that a point be awarded to the Badgers, which could turn out to be extremely valuable in the league standings. Six teams currently are separated by six points behind first-place Colorado College and second-placed Denver.
Doug Spencer, the WCHA associate director for public relations, said Monday that McLeod was traveling between Nashville, Tenn. — where McLeod was attending the NCAA convention — and his home in Denver. Spencer has worked with the league for 22 years and couldn't recall a step like this being taken by a school.
"We acknowledged our error," he said. "Everybody regrets what happened, but we move forward."
12 comments:
What fucking idiots. A game is worth 2 points TOTAL, not 3. They can't take away a point from DU and I doubt they'll all of a sudden decide that this particular game is worth 3 points, when EVERY OTHER LEAGUE GAME PLAYED IN THE COUNTRY IS WORTH 2 POINTS.
Its the times we live in. We don't keep score of youth sports because we don't want anybody to get their feelings hurt. The NHL wants every team to finish over .500 so overtime losses don't count.
Now Wisconsin wants to be handed a tie even though the goal was never recognized by the referee.
Sigh...
While the Badgers and their fans have a right to be pissed about last Friday's game, I'm not sure what Wisconsin is trying to accomplish by filing an appeal. The game is over. Going back and changing the result is even more ridiculous that the incident itself. The game can't be a tie--no overtime was ever played. DU shouldn't be docked a point for a game already in the books. And making the game worth 3 points is absurd.
Everyone needs to move on......
Twister normally I'd agree with you wholeheartedly but LetsGoDU Blog hits are up 200% in Wisconsin... :-)
DG--No worries....we are all dedicated to ensuring LetsGoDU remains the best thing out there in cyberspace!
"They can't take away a point from DU ..."
Why not? They didn't earn it.
league rules...
you can't just bend the rules for one particular team when the other 9 teams have to obey them.
{shaking head...sigh}
then, every other team who feels like they got shafted at any point will try to use this (the precedent-setting ruling you would like) against the league. that would become quite dangerous.
"Why not? They didn't earn it."
Ah but now that its in the books they officially did, even if there was an apology.
blah, blah, blah.
The badgers have played crappy hockey all season long. maybe coach Eaves and the rest of those nitwits should focus on trying to play above .500 in the second half instead of filing appeals. what a joke.
we should all be happy with the appeal no wisco wont get points but because this is shmidts secound major mistake that the league had to appolagize for, the commitie can decide to suspend or even fire him and hire some one more qualified.
I know better than to bring sensibility to this blog (lova ya DG (; )...but I doubt if Eaves and company really thing anything will happen. It's just sort of a formal way of saying to the league, "Schmidt sucks, keep a damn close eye on him, and if he ever fucks up like that again, can his ass!"
For only 100 bucks I'd appeal as well. The WCHA needs to raise the fee to $1,000 and use the cash for a happy hour for the Executive Committee at Blarney's or Spanky's.
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