After Further Review, April 1 Brings Big News

John Gilbert

Maybe you missed it, but after further review, the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee has determined that any questionable calls that are questionable enough to be reviewed by video, but still are questionable, can be reviewed one more time after a cooling-off period. In the case of the UMD-Boston University NCAA quarterfinal game, held as the championship of the Northeast Region, that delay is to be three days.
After further review of the further review, the committee declared that Adam Krauss had, indeed, scored a goal during a crazy scramble at the BU goal. You remember the play - Krause shot, goaltender Matt O’Connor partially blocked it, and when the whistle didn’t blow, Krause and an army of offensive and defensive players crashed into the net. When the players were unpiled, there was the puck, about six inches across the goal line.
Somehow, the referees still refused to allow the goal, which would have tied the game 3-3 with 23.2 seconds remaining in the third period.
But under the new, and until now obscure, rule the review can still be reviewed, and in this case, the on-ice and first-reviewed ruling were overturned, and the goal has been allowed.
The UMD players, who had returned home to Duluth and unpacked all their gear, were summoned to pack it all up again and return to Manchester this weekend. The Bulldogs and BU will go back out on the ice Saturday night and the puck will be dropped at center ice, with 23.2 seconds on the clock. When that runs out, they will begin playing 20-minute overtime periods to determine a winner.

When asked about the outrageous reversal, an NCAA official who asked not to be identified said: “That’s why they leave an open weekend between the end of the regionals and the Frozen Four. Everybody thinks it’s just so we avoid detracting any attention from the basketball Final Four. But really, we’ve got this weekend free for just such a review and return to the ice. It’s just never been called before.
“The timing is perfect. We’ve got the weekend free, and we had enough time to make the decision on April 1st.”

Big Ten Dissolved

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents announced it had decided to drop the Gophers out of the Big Ten hockey conference, and has made application to join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Coach Don Lucia said it was the only way the Gophers could toughen themselves up to play at the NCAA tournament level and avoid the humiliation of one of its branches from thrashing them in the first round.
As part of the dissolution, the Gophers PR staff agreed to dispose of all the puffed-up cliches about how the Gophers and the Big Ten teams had improved so much during the second half - when, not coincidentally, they only played each other. And, to dispose of the excuse that the team had to battle so hard to overcome 19th ranked Michigan and 31st Michigan State for the Big Ten title, they had nothing left a week later, when UMD whipped them 4-1.
While Minnesota has that Big Ten trophy to cling to, UMD finished fifth in the NCHC and still pounded the Gophers. The Gophers were the only Big Ten team to make the NCAA field, while six NCHC teams made it and two of those reached the Frozen Four.

    
Before the Gophers could notify the Big Ten they were withdrawing, however, the Big Ten office announced that it had decided to drop hockey from being a conference sport, and teams were free to catch on with whatever conference would have them. Officials figured that in another couple of years, the Big Ten hockey teams might have to drop to Division III in order to compete for the national title.
 
Miller For Mayor

UMD athletic director Josh Berlo came clean and admitted that he had been misleading the public and the media for too long, and that he never actually dismissed Shannon Miller as UMD women’s hockey coach.
Berlo confessed that it was all part of an elaborate plot because of his long-standing love of politics that he and Miller decided on a concerted effort that would use the coming year to mobilize. Shannon Miller will run for Mayor of Duluth, with Berlo as her campaign manager.
With Don Ness insisting he would not run for re-election, and no worthy candidates stepping forward, Berlo sensed that someone with the immense popularity of Miller could easily captivate the voting public. “She’s obviously a winner and everybody knows that,” said Berlo, in a release dated April 1. “Who could possibly challenge her knowledge, her ability to bring people together, and her record for success?”
Berlo displayed the new campaign slogan that will adorn signs and buttons and proclaim: “Miller for Mayor.” One of those signs has a replaceable flash card, just in case he is accosted by anyone who might have been misled by previous rumors that he had fired Miller. That sign can be switched to say: “Just Kidding.”