By Gary Braham 7-19-02
I enjoy going to games on the road. I really do. It's interesting to visit other schools, and experience the atmosphere of other venues. Also, on the road, the Colgate fans are usually the more enthusiastic ones, and they are concentrated on a smaller area. The change of scenery can also make a game more memorable. And due to some of the circumstances surrounding this one game in particular, it will never be forgotten.
On January 25th of this year, I drove upstate to visit some of my friends at SUNY Potsdam I had meant to visit for several years now. This semester, I was student teaching, but since my term didn't begin yet, this was an easy opportunity to get out on the road and catch a few Colgate hockey games in the North Country. I had been to Clarkson and SLU before, the Colgate pep band went on the same trip sophmore year, when SLU dominated Colgate the first night, beating a team that was without Andy McDonald and Sean Nolan, who were suspended for a shoving match at Lynah Rink. SLU had even scored before we had taken our seats that night. The following evening, Colgate responded by beating Clarkson at Cheel arena. It was a thrilling game, that saw Etienne Morin score the final goal on an open net late in a game to guarantee the win. IT was a thrilling victory, and I was hoping for more of the same.
Appleton arena is a classic old barn on the campus of St. Lawrence University. There were about 2,800 in attendance that night, and I was sitting right behind the Colgate bench. Because SLU is so close to Canada, a large number of parents, and other passionate Colgate hokcey fans were sitting in the same section. The game itself lived up to expectations. The first period was scoreless, but a long slapshot from Rob Brown somehow got between the goalies leg and the post early in the second period for Colgate's first score.
The game was back and forth from there on out, with SLU scoring the go ahead goal with just 7 minutes left in the third period. Now this is where the story gets interesting. Colgate was crashing the net, and Kyle Doyle knocked a rebound down into the net from about waist height. Previously, the puck was behind the net, and on top of the netting. The goalie called for a stopage of play, the the official gave the players a few seconds to play the puck, which they did. The goal drove the fans into a frenzy. Many thought play should have been stopped, many thought it was knocked in with a high stick. The goal was entirely kosher, but there were enough fans who didn't think it was to get them on the officials case the rest of the night. Not that the officials were having a great night to begin with, but more on that later.
The game winning goal for Colgate was also unique. Paul Kelley picked up the puck in the defensive zone, and pretty much skated it striaght up ice. Coach Vaughan was on the bench screaming for a pass, but Paul just kept going, as the SLU skaters kept giving him more and more room, backing up all the way into the offensive zone. Paul made a move torwards the net. Ordinarly, he is not known for his finishes, but in this case, he flicked a hard shot from just outside the crease that beat the goalie just underneath the crossbar. It had to have been one of the best Colgate goals I've ever seen, and I think Coach Vaughan forgave him for not passing. There were less than 2 minutes left.
But a fairly weak penalty was quickly called against Colgate. SLU was on the powerplay, and to add to it, they pulled their goalie. David Cann was up to the task, and stopped every shot he faced. Except for one that it. There was a scrum in front of the net, and a SLU player tapped the puck towards the net. David Cann did not see the puck, but he sat down right on top of it. He didn't stop it completly, and as he was repositioning himself the puck went into the net. But the whistle blew, and the referee ruled it a no goal. He said that Cann had covered the puck, and he blew the whistle before the puck was in the net. That might not have been the case, but it was a no goal, and the fans were furious. Except for the Colgate section of course. SLU fans littered the ice with garbage, both then, and when the final whistle blew a few moments later.
I rarely critisize officials. I think it's one of the toughest jobs you could have in fact. Anyone who makes it a habit to bash officials on a regular basis, should really don the stripes themselves first. I've had enough experiences working youth league soccer and baseball games to know how tough the job is, and how much pressure is on you. So I feel that most officials are competant, and genuinly trying their best and giving you a fair game. I can only think of a handful of games where there was a blatant officials bias, and slightly more where a ref's mistake affected the outcome of the game. But mistakes are frequently made, and many officals do unconsciously become swayed by the home crowd. In this case, we had an official who was relatively new to wearing the orange stripe, and a home crowd that was really getting on his case. Yes, he made bad calls, and maybe that should have been a goal at the end. But it never should have been a powerplay to begin with. I can remember at least one other terrible call against Colgate that game. So I think he was below average that night, but it went both ways.
Here's where things really get interesting. I am a regular poster on USCHO.com (US College hockey online). This game attracted a lot of attention from ECAC fans, and many SLU fans were outraged at the outcome, and officiating. One poster who went by the name "Puck off" (not really), was so angered, that he started talking about how the referee deserved to be beaten, and suggested someone should break his legs next time he came to the North Country.
USCHO.com is a popular website, and the best college sports website I know of. Lots of people read it, players, coaches, fans, you name it. Somewhere between the fans reaction at the game, maybe a review of the video tape, and ECAC officials reading these comments on the message board bashing the referee, and suggesting he should actually be bashed, the league higher-ups decided to keep this ref out of a couple of games.
Fast forward about 3 weeks. I'm now student teaching earth science at Morrisville HS, and I've just begun my term. I'm with my cooperating teacher in front of the classroom, when the classroom phone rings. I answer it, and prepare to hand the phone over to my cooperating teacher. But this time the calls for me. It's the principal, and I'm needed in his office immediatly.
When I arrived in the main office, a NY State Trooper and the principal were waiting for me, both looking particularly unhappy. The principal only had one comment for me as he left the room. "Don't worry, it's not about your teaching." The officer started asking me if I was at this particular hockey game. It struck me as an odd question, and I really didn't know where this was going. The enxt question was whether I post on USCHO.com under the alias "redraider13". I did, and said so, still trying to figure out what was going on. The next question was whether I know someone who goes by the alias "Puck off". What?! Now it was starting to make sense. I typically avoid this charachter on the message boards, and don't really know anything about him. The officer explained to me that there was a referee who filed a complaint about threatening comments on the internet.
???????????????We went down to the library, and started to browse the website as I tried to offer whatever help I could. There wasn't much I could do though, since there was only very limited information available. The officer thanked me for my time, and left me standing in the library with 20 students looking at me and talking in hushed voices about what sort of charachter one of the new students teachers is. It took a good week or two for my students to becomes convinved that it was not me going to jail.
When I got home that day, another part of the story was waiting to greet me. There was a not on my door from campus safety. My voice mail was full of messages what was going on with me, and my e-mail was also overflowing with simmilar questions. They all wanted to know why the State Police were at Colgate that day, looking for me.
My USCHO.com profile mentions that I run around the rink with the flag at hockey games. State Police must have seen that profile, and saw me talking to "Puck off" so they must have figured I could be easily tracked down, and useful. Either that or my comments that the officiating wasn't great also nearly put me in hot water. I never threatened violence against the ref, and my comments were along the lines that I have said earlier in this article.
So here's what must have happened in the morning hours of that day, according to what people have told me. State Troopers arrived at Colgate from the Morrisville Substation. They go into the atheltic offices, and ask who is the guy with the flag at hockey games, and where is he? They do not say I'm not the one in trouble, and it's not a big deal. Can you imagine what those guys must have thought after they talked to the police? They probally think I've been knocking over 7-11's or something. So I guess they got my name from atheltics, then went to campus safety. The State Troopers and campus safety officers came down to my dorm, found I wasn't there, and started to go through the dorm, looking for me, and asking about me. Now making all my hall mates think I'm a criminal.
Since I couldn't be found in my dorm. I guess they went to the registrar, and got my schedule. ????????I had a student teaching seminar. No dates or times were listed, but my professor was. So off they went. My professor later told me she was sitting in her office doing her work when Campus Safety and the Troopers barged into her office, asking where I was. When she asked if I was in any sort of trouble, they just kept asking how to find me. She told them where I was, and they left to head up to Morrisville, now that they knew where I was, there was just one officer, a NY State Trooper, who came in to ask the principal to speak with me, only explaining it wasn't related to school. It took a good number of days to explain to everyone what happened, and who knows how many people I missed. All because someone decided to threaten a referee over the internet. I took the night off from worrying about it though. Because it was Friday night, and there was a hockey game about to start.
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