By now, most college hockey fans and pundits have seen University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks forward Austin Poganski’s game-ending penalty shot. Poganski was awarded a penalty shot after being taken down by Minnesota-Duluth junior defenseman Carson Soucy.
The sophomore from St. Cloud Minnesota made no mistake, he went backhand and buried the puck behind Kasimir Kaskisuo. Sending the Ralph Engelstad Arena crowd into a frenzy. With the goal, UND secured an important three points in the conference standings.
Today, there’s a fair amount of controversy swirling around that penalty shot. There two ways of looking at this. Did NCHC official Todd Anderson blow the call? I think you can definitely make the argument that it was the wrong call.
If you look at (rule 25.6 page 35) it would appear that he did.
25.6 Penalty Shot – A penalty shot is designed to restore a scoring opportunity
which was lost as a result of a foul being committed by the offending
team, based on the parameters set out in these rules.
There are four (4) specific conditions that must be met in order for the
Referee to award a penalty shot for a player being fouled from behind. They
are:
• The infraction must have taken place in the neutral zone or attacking
zone, (i.e. over the puck carrier’s own blue line);
• The infraction must have been committed from behind;
• The player in possession and control (or, in the judgment of the
Referee, clearly would have obtained possession and control of the
puck) must have been denied a reasonable chance to score (the fact
that he got a shot off does not automatically eliminate this play from
the penalty shot consideration criteria. If the foul was from behind
and he was denied a “more” reasonable scoring opportunity due to the
foul, then the penalty shot should be awarded);
• The player in possession and control (or, in the judgment of the
Referee, clearly would have obtained possession and control of the
puck) must have had no opposing player between himself and the goalkeeper.
That being said, Soucy put the referee in that situation where it was a 50/50 call, it was either going to be a penalty shot or a two-minute minor penalty. Poganski is a strong skating power forward and he was rewarded for his hard work. If I had been the defender on that play, I would have done the same things as Soucy. It’s the right penalty to take.
Needless to say, Soucy and the Bulldogs were at the mercy of the on-ice official. If you watch the video below, you will see that Anderson didn’t waver in his decision. He was very decisive.
Obviously, those in the Nodak Nation are going to be a lot happier than their counterparts from the Minnesota-Duluth fanbase. In the future, UND could be that team that’s on the other end of a poor call. It could happen tonight.
When @TheNCHC we were told by @Fenton_JC that refs would be held accountable in the league unlike Wcha. Yeah….that never happened
— DHG (@UmdPenaltyBox) February 20, 2016
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Was this a defining moment?
A few weeks ago, UND head coach Brad Berry talked about the defining moments during the course of a season. When the season is over, the coaching staff and fans can look back at these defining moments and see how they shaped a particular season.
“There are different parts of the year,” Berry said. “We call them defining moments of the year. That you go back once the season is finished. I think this past weekend in Western Michigan was a defining moment, very tough place to play.
Last night’s game against the Bulldogs was a very important series regarding NCHC seedings and conference standings. If UND loses this game, they’re in second with the Denver Pioneers breathing down their necks. So, yes, this was a defining moment.
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