Saturday, January 12, 2008

Oy Vey

Denver beat Wisconsin 3-2 tonight...sort of.

The Badgers appeared to tie the game with under a second left in the game, but the referee decided the goal was scored after time had expired, and thus disallowed the goal.

There is video, albeit fairly Zapruder-esque: Controversy! at Magness

The quality isn't outstanding, but you can see the Wisconsin players with their arms raised, and two officials signaling that it is goal prior to time expiring. I've heard the argument that Fox Sport's game clock may not be 100% accurate, but if you look closely, you'll notice that as soon as the clock on the screen hits 0.0, the green light behind the goal clicks on signaling the end of the period, which leads me to believe that it is pretty much accurate. It'd say it's pretty hard to argue that the puck didn't go in before the end of the period.

And who was the referee for this game? None other than Randy Schmidt, who made headlines earlier this year for when he blew this call. The WCHA later apologized to St. Cloud for Schmidt's decision to allow that goal. Perhaps another apology is in order here.

14 comments:

Jon Marthaler said...

Looks to me - and keep in mind, I might be looking in the wrong place - that the one light goes on at 0.5 of the FSN clock, then the other at 0.0. What I can't tell from the video is which is the red and which is the green light.

Ultimately it doesn't matter, because you can clearly see from the UW players' reactions that the puck is in the net before 0.5. Dose Badgers dem dere got hosed.

Anonymous said...

And why does Randy Schmidt have a WCHA ref job again? Two booth reviews and he still makes the wrong call...once against SCSU and this one against WI.

Anonymous said...

I see what should be a tie, I really think its time to remove some WCHA refs and they should start at the top down.

Ryan said...

I caught the end of this game and thought Ford might have hesitated a bit too many times. I believe I had the Denver feed, so they practically REFUSED to show the replay and when they did, they showed no clock so you weren't able to tell for sure.

Ryan said...

Jon, the light that turns on first is the red light. Check out this picture I found on the Badger board:

[url=http://www.dotphoto.com/SAN1/12/BC/4A/i12BC4AE0-B084-4DA8-95BC-0508DC273F49.jpg]Picture[/url]

Anonymous said...

another missed call by randy schmidt, maybe he should take some time off.

Anonymous said...

look at goons world north dakota filmage it clearly shows it was a badger goal.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute - the film initially shows the clock down to 0.0 and no reaction from the Wisc. players then suddenly there is .07 on the clock and a reaction (goal). There is also a scan line that obscures the picture since this is not a direct feed but rather someone filming their TV so you cannot tell when the puck crosses the goal line. Is there a direct feed out there? That would be conclusive.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter when players raise their arms. Just because they raised their arms with .5 means nothing. The official has to go by when he sees the puck crossing the line.

Bucky said...

I had the game recorded on my DVR. I replayed the lat sequence frame by frame. The ref's hand clearly is signaling goal with .4 seconds left. There is no doubt about that. The only question then is the clock that we see the same as the official game clock. If they are one in the same, then Schmidt CLEARY blew the call.

Anonymous said...

I could care less about the team but I do care about the quality of the WCHA officials. It will take the collective voices of the members for change. WCHA offials wouldn't be fit to referee anywhere else.

Personally, I get tired of watching star players with some wannabe permitted to hang onto to their backs for an entire game. We are talking hockey not Rugby.

Anonymous said...

I have said for years that all hockey referees in college hockey should have to wear microphones.

They're doing it in the NHL, and the people who pay oodles and oodles of dollars for tickets or to help support their programs deserve a full explanation when something like this happens.

Not when the league feels it's convenient, but when it happens. Making a referee explain himself on a controversial call is only going to increase the odds that the call is correct.

Anonymous said...

is it just me or does DU get a lot of calls to go their way?

Unknown said...

I dvr'd it also. Here's what we know.

1) The refs had to re-set the clock immediately before that face-off, so we know that 3.7 seconds was the proper time on the official game clock. FSN swithed their time one the arena clock was adjusted by Schmidt.

2) The clock started exactly on time. I checked this to make sure the tv clock didn't a delay. The timing of the green light also confirms.

3) The wisconsin players start to raise their arms at .5, and the refs signal at .4. This indicates that the puck crossed the line at about .8, given human reaction times.

4) WCHA refs stink.