All Kinds of March Madness

arch is great time of the year (especially when it is 64 degrees out, baby!).  There are all kinds of great hockey -- my backyard has the Minnesota State High School Tournaments, the Minnesota Youth Hockey State Tournaments, the WCHA Final Five...heck...even the Women's Frozen Four is in town at Ridder Arena on the University of Minnesota Campus!

It's just a fun time of the year ~~ WARNING...I am going to go back into my memory banks and pleasantly relive some memories from 1995 ~~ WARNING

Dateline - Moorhead, MN 1995, site of the Bantam A State Tournament

Rick Looker, Scott Engman, and myself were selected from MN District 16 to work the Bantam A State Tournament.  We travelled from Bemidji, MN (where we were all residing at the time) to Moorhead.  I remember checking into our hotel room on Thursday, prior to the banquet at the VFW Club, and checking all of the NCAA Hoops scores (just like I am doing now) to see how my bracket was doing.  We had a fun time connecting with the other officiating crews that night -  which included a District 5 crew (Brian Thul - WCHA ref,  IIHF ref, ECHL 5 year ref and Evonne Young (prior to Fix) - WCHA Women's ref, IIHF Olympics), a District 10 crew (Eric Olson - current MHOA President and Greg Anzelc - current editor of Minnesota Hockey Journal), and another crew from District 15 (Brian Mach - NHL Linesman) = WOW!  

I also remember working our early quaterfinal game on Friday and coming back to the hotel to clean up.  I remember watching the WCHA Final Five on T.V. and seeing Jerry Krieger wave off a goal against Minnesota (funny thing is, there quite a few who remember that incident :)  Out of all the fun we had on the ice -- our Dist 16 crew was selected to work the championship game -- I remember the people.  The bonding.  The commaraderie.  The memories.

Why bring up that story?  Because that's what we provide here at Ultimate Officials in our Referee Camps - a chance to relive GREAT MEMORIES over and over and over and over again.

I am so proud of the guys from the UO Camps who are participating in MN Youth State Tournaments this weekend:

Darren Glur and Shane Paskey (Bantam A)
Neil Missling (16U Boys Midget)
Kevin Cassidy and John Busch (Jr. Gold B Midget)
Joe Oberg (Jr. Gold A Midget)
Mike Diebold (19UB Girls)

and one guy working a Youth State Tournament in New Jersey:

Domenic Zecca (16U Tier I Midget)

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More madness =


How about the Madness of no suspenion? 
(Even Grapes is incensed!)



How about this hit?:
(I love the comments from the NHL Network guys = right on)



Take a look at the game link for not only the Wisniewski hit, but I want you check out the play preceeding the game winning goal (OMG!): Chicago at Anaheim Highlights 

(Randy Carlyle, the coach of the Ducks, thought it was a clean hit?!?  And Wisniewski gets an 8 game suspension?!?  What about Matt Cooke?!?)
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(next day addition and edit):


OK...I am a teacher and I deal with kids who get in trouble all the time.  I am telling you, IT IS SO EASY TO TELL WHEN SOMEONE IS LYING to get out of trouble.  I am telling you, Wisniewski looks just like a 5th grade boy who got caught trying to steal something.  I love that the NHL Network put together a string of videos to back up any comments made...hilarious (or scary?...how about the cross check to the face?!).  By the way -- I think the term "HEAT SEEKING MISSILE" describes Frattin, too.



Madness...it's all Madness! 
(on a side note -- I think the playoffs this year is going to be better than last year, which was UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!)