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I really thought that, after the 3 OT game against South yesterday, Eden Prairie wouldn't have much left in the tank. But officials....you know.

Lee

The between period interview with Lee Smith.....
Reporter - why were you so confident coming into the second down 2-0
Smith - Blah blah blah

Of course the honest answer should have been something like “I talked to the refs and we agreed that we would get nearly every call this period, and even some made up stuff to make sure we face Edina Saturday.”

By the way, google the 75th Cotton Bowl and look at the logo.. Copyright infringement, plagerism, whatever it is the MSHSL looks bad

The reffing has been less than ideal. But let’s be clear, EP has been taking it to Blaine for most of this game

green4 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:12 pm The reffing has been less than ideal. But let’s be clear, EP has been taking it to Blaine for most of this game

True, but in the last 22 minutes of game time Blaine has been shorthanded for more than half of it. I don’t think Blaine is as deep as EP and killing all these penalties is taking a toll

[quote=green4 post_id=733300 time=1552097532 user_id=20155]
The reffing has been less than ideal. But let’s be clear, EP has been taking it to Blaine for most of this game
[/quote]

Totally changed the momentum.

I will say Blaine has been very bad in neutral zone. EP much better in the center of the ice and Blaine cannot establish the zone.

Trout wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:23 pm

green4 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:12 pm The reffing has been less than ideal. But let’s be clear, EP has been taking it to Blaine for most of this game

Totally changed the momentum.

I will say Blaine has been very bad in neutral zone. EP much better in the center of the ice and Blaine cannot establish the zone.

It might have killed their momentum, but they still gave up four straight goals. Their penalty kill has been poor. They are letting guys inside to screen the goalie and get rebounds. They have a weird PK where three guys have been high. It sucks they got some bad breaks, but they had 92% pk this year, so it’s not much of an excuse when they are just getting out played

Except when the officials call the game so badly that the official calling a penalty initially signals a tripping infraction then has to change it to a cross check after talking with the other official. It was neither a trip or cross check

Two games in a row EP was the better team, 2 games in a row the officials played a direct part in the outcome.

in the end the penalties hurt but EP owned the neutral zone this game especially the third period.

Penalties or no penalties EP dominated this game after the 1st period. They were better 5 on 5 and much better defensemen. They beat Blaine twice this year.

goldy313 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:33 pm Except when the officials call the game so badly that the official calling a penalty initially signals a tripping infraction then has to change it to a cross check after talking with the other official. It was neither a trip or cross check

Other than the Brodzinski penalty, what was so bad? You can’t argue any of them weren’t penalties. EP was dominating, even though they were down 2-0, before Blaine went to the box for their first penalty.

You could argue the penalty on Smith on EP was very weak, and Richels should have been called for a hook on the forecheck shortly before Blaine’s second goal.

The refs missed a couple calls, but the better team tonight certainly won.

Game, set, match out scored Blaine and out shot them by good margin so perhaps #3 seed wasn't mistake and coaches have bit of insight.

Lake conference final?

Eagles93 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:43 pm

goldy313 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:33 pm Except when the officials call the game so badly that the official calling a penalty initially signals a tripping infraction then has to change it to a cross check after talking with the other official. It was neither a trip or cross check

Other than the Brodzinski penalty, what was so bad? You can’t argue any of them weren’t penalties. EP was dominating, even though they were down 2-0, before Blaine went to the box for their first penalty.

You could argue the penalty on Smith on EP was very weak, and Richels should have been called for a hook on the forecheck shortly before Blaine’s second goal.

The refs missed a couple calls, but the better team tonight certainly won.

The issue was consistency, if you call one cross check then you should probably call the other.

Total Domination! I’m shocked. Blaine looked like the team that played 3 OT’s. This is rare but, kudos to the Ep coaching plan. Even when they were down 2 it still felt like they had a plan and were executing it. What the hell was Blaine’s game plan?

green4 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:47 pm The issue was consistency, if you call one cross check then you should probably call the other.

I agree, they missed the cross check on Schultz in front of the net but that doesn’t excuse Hillman’s retaliation penalty.

goldy313 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:08 pm
By the way, google the 75th Cotton Bowl and look at the logo.. Copyright infringement, plagerism, whatever it is the MSHSL looks bad

Consistency certainly was an issue.
The Brodzinski penalty was awful, taking Blaine’s best player off the ice and changing the call makes it look even worse. That also led to the 4th goal.
In football you can pick up the flag, in hockey not so much so you make it up.

Yes, the better team won. My problem is twice the officiating has left a bad taste in everyone but EP fans mouth as bad calls, no, phantom calls impacted the game. Those happen, just ask the New Orleans Saints. But it doesn’t make it Okay.

Good luck to EP in the finals, hopefully the officiating is better.

green4 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:47 pm

Eagles93 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:43 pm

goldy313 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:33 pm Except when the officials call the game so badly that the official calling a penalty initially signals a tripping infraction then has to change it to a cross check after talking with the other official. It was neither a trip or cross check

Other than the Brodzinski penalty, what was so bad? You can’t argue any of them weren’t penalties. EP was dominating, even though they were down 2-0, before Blaine went to the box for their first penalty.

You could argue the penalty on Smith on EP was very weak, and Richels should have been called for a hook on the forecheck shortly before Blaine’s second goal.

The refs missed a couple calls, but the better team tonight certainly won.

The issue was consistency, if you call one cross check then you should probably call the other.

The referees ignored a blatant slash by Blaine with 2 minutes to go. They definitely should have called that but they didn’t. The referees are honest and want a fair game but they miss some calls both ways and it evens out over a game. Blaine looked big and strong against WBL, they looked big and slow against EP

Eagles93 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:52 pm

green4 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:47 pm The issue was consistency, if you call one cross check then you should probably call the other.

I agree, they missed the cross check on Schultz in front of the net but that doesn’t excuse Hillman’s retaliation penalty.

yeah, if you read through this thread you will see I made that exact statement

JerseyDave wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:54 pm

goldy313 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:08 pm
By the way, google the 75th Cotton Bowl and look at the logo.. Copyright infringement, plagerism, whatever it is the MSHSL looks bad

Thanks I am on my phone and can’t do it....the phone probably can.... I can’t

The trip call on the wall should have been a dive! The cross check was absolutely brutal. These penalties totally changed the game.

As was said EP dominated the neutral zone and that was huge...but going from up 2 to 0 to down 4 to 2 was mostly about the penalties and reffing. After that the game changed. No question. It is just hard to watch that poor officiating in the state tourney. No dog in this fight but if you can't admit the refs had an impact you weren't watching the same game.

I was dead wrong in predicting this one

EP was the better team tonite and looked sharper than yesterday , quite an accomplishment considering played five periods of hockey barely 24 hours ago

They bottled up Blaine s first line very well , most times had two people in trap on B.B. and CR in neutral ice and over blue line. Carson did Breakaway in late 3rd and buried a nice snipe to make things interesting and remind how things might have gone

The two penalty calls were inconsistent and terrible and definitely swung momentum , who knows if could have changed outcome but I doubt it

Credit to Lee Smith game plan , JJ and the Eagles on this one

I’m going to have to look at replay of Luke M
deflection goal a couple more times . Refs reviewed it fir quite a while . Grandson kept telling me there was a second deflection after Luke’s , with stick over the crossbar height .
Seems like refs must have checked that carefully
though

WestMetro wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:42 pm
The two penalty calls were terrible and definitely swung momentum , who knows if could have changed outcome but I doubt it .

Really? EP scored 3 power play goals including what turned out to be the game winner on the Brodzinski penalty, which changed from a trip to a crosscheck, It clearly changed the outcome.

Agree That Brodzinski penalty was a terrible call, looked more like a no call or a flop or lost edge bad ice in that area , or if a penalty more of a hook than a trip, but then changing the call to crosscheck which never occurred just added salt to the wound , plus took best player off ice fir two

Officiating aside, and I agree it was the worst of any game in the tournament so far, I thought Blaine really had an off game, most notably in the 2nd period when they were outscored 0-4. Emotion, effort, decision-making, passing, positioning and puck skill were all sub-par for a team that had lost only two games going into this one. Statistically, this was measured by the shot totals, 23-38 against. But their game was better measured by what was so obvious on the ice. As someone noted above, it looked like the Bengals were the team that had played a 3-overtime game the day before. Too bad they picked the State Semifinal to play one of their worst games of the season.

Or they were put shorthanded by a terrible officiating crew in a decisive 2nd period.

You can’t put officiating aside in either EP game as officiating affected the outcome of both.

You try to Kill off 6 penalties in a short amount of time....