OMAHA, Neb. — Scott Sandelin was 0-for-2 on challenges this season entering Friday night.
Turns out the third time was the charm.
Sandelin challenged an Omaha short-handed goal late in the first period, arguing the Mavericks had an excessive number of participants on the playing surface. The officials agreed, giving the veteran UMD coach his first successful challenge of the season, taking a Maverick goal off the board, and sapping momentum from the home side at the same time.
UMD would get a short-handed goal of its own — this one upheld on a similar challenge by Omaha — and the Bulldogs rode that to a 5-1 win to open this two-game series.
It wasn’t always pretty, but UMD was able to keep Omaha off the board on five of its six power plays, and an opportunistic attack pounced when it was needed most. Dominic James gave UMD a reward for its good start by scoring 4:20 in, and it was Blake Biondi depositing a rebound in the final minutes to put UMD up by three at a point where Omaha was surely considering getting goalie Isaiah Saville off the ice for an extra attacker.
The James Gang was on point in this game. Biondi had three points, James two, and Olson had a pretty snipe on the power play (!) to give UMD a 2-0 lead in the first period.
We talked to Olson this week, and talked to Sandelin about Olson, and one of the points that came up from both gentlemen was that Olson needs to shoot the puck more. That’s actually a scary proposition, as Olson entered Friday’s game as the Bulldogs’ leader in shots with 66, nine more than the next-most, which was Biondi at 57. Olson — who had a team-high four shots Friday — is the only UMD player to register at least one shot in every game. It speaks to how good Olson is positionally and how smart a player he is that someone who has 70 shots on goal in 23 games isn’t shooting enough.
Luke Loheit scored UMD’s short-handed goal after Noah Cates won a race and a battle in the Omaha zone. Jesse Jacques’ shot set up Biondi’s dagger goal in the third. It was nice to see some different names on the scoresheet, along guys with who are becoming the usual suspects.
Friday was the first time since Nov. 12 against Colorado College that UMD scored two or more special teams goals in a game. Loheit’s tally was the Bulldogs’ second short-handed marker of the year.
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It was a weird game. A big reason why? We had challenges by both teams — for the same thing, oddly enough, too many men on the ice on a short-handed goal — and two other replay reviews for hits.
I know we’re spoiled at Amsoil Arena, with a replay monitor in the home radio booth. It’s a great tool, allowing us to see what the officials are looking at during reviews, and sometimes we can catch things before they are looked at in the first place. It’s the only place in the NCHC that has this setup in the radio booth, and we use it a lot.
So when UMD goes on the road, I don’t expect the same setup. Therefore, I accept that sometimes we’re running a little blind on these types of plays. But Omaha was not ideal. In addition to not showing replays on the big board inside Baxter Arena, the NCHC.tv feed did not replay any of the close plays that were reviewed. There was apparently a monitor somewhere in the press box, but I had no view of it from my vantage point, and I had no ability to 1) find it, or 2) watch it, since I was trying to do a broadcast.
So we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The four reviews, per our studio producer Tyler Walters back in Duluth, took a combined nine minutes, 30 seconds. That’s nearly ten minutes spent reviewing the four plays in question. The longest review was for Omaha’s disallowed goal, at over three minutes.
There was, again, no communication from the officials — or the visiting radio guy — to the fans as to what was being reviewed. The referees, who wear microphones, only gave the most basic information, announcing the challenges by UMD and Omaha, then announcing they were reviewing plays for potential major penalties on the other two stoppages. The first major penalty review was on a Loheit check that was called a minor penalty, but there was no information offered on the second review, to the point where I didn’t even know what team may have been going a player short.
And it’s unacceptable.
I’ve come around slightly on the idea that there should a fixed time limit on reviews. Not every play is the same. Not every arena setup is the same. Some games have more cameras shooting them than others do. Not every replay tech will operate the same way, and that’s okay. They’re human, and they have a way they are trying to do things.
That said, we need some common-sense limitations on how long a video review can take. Discern the available camera angles, figure out what you need to see, and decide if it’s there or not. If it isn’t there, we revert to the call on the ice and move on with our lives. I acknowledge that having no set time limit makes this a tremendously imperfect system, but even at that, it’s an upgrade over what we have at the moment.
One thing is certain: Everyone involved in the replay review system — the on-ice officials, the on-site supervisor, the replay tech, whoever — want the calls to be right. And they’re all going to do their best they can and not cheat the process. Their efforts are appreciated.
But it shouldn’t (and, quite frankly, can’t continue to) take this long. Whether it’s a soft time limit, maybe one that depends on the nature of the review, or a more concerted effort by all parties involved to smooth out the process and reach a verdict faster, something has to change.
These long reviews — three of the four review stoppages Friday were in excess of two minutes — suck the life out of arenas and probably benches. And the lack of communication when those in charge are wearing microphones that can be turned on and off at any time just can’t continue to happen. I’ve said this before, but fans pay really good money to be at these games. They deserve better communication. So do media members, who are there on someone’s dime, charged with telling the story of the game and expected to know what is going on.
We used to make fun of former NFL referee Ed Hochuli, who would take his time explaining calls that he was making, both with and without the benefit of replay. But truth be told, we’d kill to have more people like that officiating in sports today. A 20-second explanation is rarely (if ever) needed, but the microphone is a waste of time and money if the only words spoken into it are words that can just as easily be conveyed with hand signals.
/rant
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UMD and Western Michigan remain tied for third in the league, but we now have a tie at the top. Western rode two Ronnie Attard goals and 34 Brandon Bussi saves to a 4-1 win over North Dakota Friday in Kalamazoo. UND falls back into a first place tie with Denver, which handled Colorado College to open the Gold Pan series Friday.
In the other game, St. Cloud State squeaked by Miami, 11-1. The Huskies remain two points back of UMD and WMU, with two games in hand on both.
Omaha and Colorado College remain tied for sixth, followed by Miami.
Meanwhile, the UMD women picked up a big 1-0 win at Ohio State Friday, thanks to Kylie Hanley’s goal with a bit more than 30 seconds left in regulation. Ohio State equalized, but it was after the clock had expired, giving UMD sophomore goalie Jojo Chobak her first collegiate shutout with 27 saves. The win is UMD’s fifth straight, and lifts the Bulldogs to seventh in the women’s PairWise rankings.
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6:30 pregame Saturday for the rematch. UMD will look for a sweep that could tie the Bulldogs for first place in the NCHC if other results break their way.
Back with lines around 5pm.
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