Foss: WCHA Needs Upgrade In Officiating

• January 21, 2007

The top athletic program in the state is the University of North Dakota’s hockey program. Any program with seven national championships is something to enjoy and be proud of. Retired Grand Forks Herald sports reporter had a great column today about the Achilles heel of college hockey.

We are blessed with being able to watch the finest college hockey in the world in the world’s finest hockey rink, Ralph Engelstad Arena. We are blessed with being able to watch teams from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, the country’s top league, come here to battle the Sioux.
That the WCHA has produced the last five NCAA championship teams, six of the last seven and 36 national title teams since the league was founded in 1951 attests to its dominance and its steady flow of star players and teams.
That the WCHA continues to have the most incompetent and inconsistent officiating in college hockey is a pox upon us all. How can the WCHA have the country’s finest players and teams and at the same time the worst officiating?
And that’s not just my opinion.
It’s one that is widely held by WCHA coaches, who are forbidden by league rules from publicly commenting on officiating.
Off the record, reporters with access to players and coaches immediately after games around the WCHA hear plenty of complaints about officiating.
But go to Engelstad Arena on any Sioux home hockey game night and you’ll see players tackled, wrapped up with both arms of the opponent along the boards and hooked from behind by opponents to slow their progress down the ice.
In battles along the boards and in front of the net, you’ll see players grabbing the stick of the opponent, another infraction that falls within the cover of obstruction that the NCAA has directed officials to penalize.
It leaves me no choice but to place the blame squarely on WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod and supervisor of officials Greg Shepherd.

What drives me nuts is that our coaching staff can say anything they want about our team or the other team. Remember these are all young kids who aren’t being paid (beyond a fine education) for what they do. However if they criticize the job done by the only professionals on the ice (who are well-paid) they are immediately slapped with a fine.
This coverup has enabled the officiating to get worse rather than better. I like how Foss held the administration of the WCHA responsible for the state we are in. It’s my opinion that the supervisor of officials is responsible for the consistent inconstancy in the job the on ice officials do. The guy was a lousy referee (in my opinion) and he’s doing a great deal more damage now that he’s in the league office.

Tags: North Dakota News

http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

Whistler that is a really nice article. The WCHA has become unwatchable because of the level of officating. I also had a spirited debate about the level of Officating at lunch today with a buddy of mine; the first thing out of his mouth was parity and how some teams can’t compete unless they hook and hold and that the officals sometimes take that into account when they call the game. I am sick and tired of watching the crap that the WCHA calls hockey. The Sioux for instance have a top line that is incredible and all season long every team out there has hooked, slashed held them, and at times tackled them and laid some dirty and questionable hits on them. All while the officals in the league watch it.

I don’t care if a team can’t recruit enough players to keep up with the more skilled team in college hockey. The refs job is to call the game the way the rule book says not to even things up.

I am hoping some day that the WCHA eventually starts calling games like the NHL does. If a player takes their hand off the stick to hold or obstruct another player you should get called for a penatly, there is not discussion about it. That would open up the WCHA and maybe college hockey. No one wants to watch hooking and holding and the neutral zone trap, they want to see up and down the ice play.

Its not our fault that some teams can’t recruit as well as other teams. Thats life.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

Hey Whister I linked you on my hockey blog as well.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

College WCHA hockey is a million times better than the NHL, imho as it is fast and more crisp than the brutish professional leagues.

I am not sure that I would agree with that, the wild game last night was 100 times beter than anything I have watched in college hockey this season there was like 8 round of shootout after a 1-1 tie. This was after the BSU and UND game in Bemidji. The obstruction in college hockey makes it hard for me to pick it over the NHL right now since he NHL has cracked down in it. I am mean don’t get me wrong I still cheer for the Sioux and always will no doubt but if there was a choice between watching say DU and C.C. and say the Wild or Bruins from the NHL I would watched the NHL in a heart beat. Only time I take college over the NHL is when UND is playing. First off I don’t want to watch DU brutal style of play.
RealManOfGenius

As a gopher fan, I always root for the WCHA ‘corn fed’ kids over the ‘silver spoon’ New England teams in national play. Watchin your Sioux crush Dartmouth was CLASSIC a few months back. College WCHA hockey is a million times better than the NHL, imho as it is fast and more crisp than the brutish professional leagues.

As a coach (not hockey) all you can ask for is consistancy. you are going to get robbed on a few calls and you are going to get a few breaks. In a perfect world, it all evens out in the end. Besides, a game is never won or lost on a single bad call, there are plenty of missed opportunities on both sides. The players are learning, the refs are also learning too.

That being said, it would be nice, it would be nice to get the L33T refs as this is the L33T league. But, I doubt the refs are making big $$ and there is little relocation incentive for great refs to move to our flyover states.

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Foss: WCHA Needs Upgrade In Officiating

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