Wow. Yet another horribly officiated game. I can not believe that someone else didn't see the same game that I did. I have a feeling that someone will be receiving a letter later this week to this effect. Seriously, you can't lower your shoulder and run our goalie without getting a penalty. Trevor Elias, I'm looking at you. That was a dirty play and everyone that saw it knows it. I can not fathom what the officials saw that made them decide not to call it. That deserves a second look, and I hope repercussions follow. That hit was blatant, and with clear intent to injure. Just classless.
You also can't take shots at Andy Taranto's head while he's down on the ice, and rip his helmet off without a contact to the head penalty. I don't understand that no call either. Now I'm not sure who actually did it, but contact to the head is a pretty well defined offense. I know a lot of it is new verbiage and such, but it doesn't get clearer than that. Good on Andy for not retaliating, that shows quite a bit of poise. Had that have been me down there, that might have been my last game for a while as I would have come up swinging.
On that note, unfortunately Ben Warda might have seen the ice for the last time for the next few months. Going hard behind the net and something happened with the planting of his foot, and he twisted awkwardly and went down. I believe the official disclosure will be something like "severe lower body injury", but he clearly broke something. It doesn't look good.
As far as the actual game goes, I thought the Nanooks actually played well for most of the night, despite playing short handed for approximately 1/3rd of it. They responded well in the face of adversity and coming back to tie the game after being down 2-0. Yaremchuk and Taranto had 2 solid goals. Yaremchuk almost had another one early on that was millimeters from crossing the goal line, hitting the inside of the post. The horn went off and all of that, but the puck didn't cross the goal line. After going to a video review, it was right there but no goal.
After overtime, the shootout did not go the Nanooks way. The initial goal by Beck was a good one, but Slubowski stood tall in goal for the Broncos. After seeing him play tonight, I suspect he'll start getting the bulk of the starts for WMU along the way this season. He's a phenomenal goalie. Definitely one to keep an eye on. I'm also going to have to suggest that Frank's nickname be established as The Big sLubowski. Or just "The Dude" for short.
The Nanooks have a short week to get ready for Ohio State. The team leaves Monday night for Columbus to get ready for a Thursday-Friday series at Nationwide Arena. They moved the games back to avoid conflict with a big football matchup between Wisconsin and the Buckeyes in the 'Shoe. I'd be interested to hear if any players take advantage of that and get to go to that game. That would be a pretty cool experience to be in one of the largest stadiums in the US packed with 100K+ people. I'd jump on that. Until then, I'll keep you posted on any further developments with followups from this game.
Also a big thanks and shoutout to all of the parents who made it up for parents weekend. Not the greatest result, but a fun weekend to say hi get to know a lot of you. I know I missed a lot of you as well, but there's only so much time! I look forward to meeting a lot more of you as the season goes on. As always, feel free to send me an email! Just click the link to the right and drop me a line!
UPDATE: The Post-game Press Conference is now up. For those of you who seem to be misinformed about what happened, feel free to fast forward to 4:30. For those of you who still choose to live with the blinds closed, don't worry I will try to get video for you.
6 comments:
Waaaaahhhh.
I didn't see the game, but from what I've heard Elias was pushed into the goalie.
The refs missed a bunch of blatant penalties on the nanooks friday. Karma is my only answer to last night.
I think you need to take your tinted glasses off. That WMU player was clearly pushed into Greenham. It was clear from the video, with no harm intended. The only blame is on the player who pushed him. Try to be a little more objective so you don't come off sounding like an idiot arguing something that never happened.
Elias was not pushed into Greenham. Elias charged Greenham and lowered his shoulder to hit him. If you want to run a goalie, that was a textbook demonstration of how to do it. I just posted the post-game press conference recording from last night. Don't believe me when I tell you that was a dirty play? Hear it straight from Coach Ferguson.
@Anon8:36 -- What karma? WMU won fair and square Friday, then got chippy when we made a late-game comeback on them yesterday.
@Anon8:55 -- Easy to call someone an idiot when you're "anonymous", isn't it?
@Britton -- Meh. Cheap play, Greenham walked it off like a man. It happens in any sport. Let the league take a look at it, then remember that revenge is best served as winning in their barn later this season with some extra motivation. End of story, nothing more to see here.
@Britton--I'm a huge Nook fan and I enjoy your blog. Completely agree the hit on Greenham was a cheapshot. The video evidence shows Kunyk checking a guy while Elias skated in untouched raising his knee into the face of Greenham. There is absolutely no denying it. When you say that something happened to Warda, something happened alright. Although I don't think it was meant to injure him, Gens took him down in what you could call a horse collar fashion which is what led to the injury. Just giving my opinion on what I saw from up close on that one. But the difference between the two plays is pretty clear. Gens was playing hard and Elias was playing dirty, plain and simple.
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