Friday night the Badger men's hockey team got royally screwed by the refs in Denver.
The team was there playing the Denver University Pioneers - the #2 team in the country. Despite being down the whole game, Badger Matt Ford scores at the end of regulation making the score 3-3 at the end of the game, necessitating OT.
The video below clearly shows the goal being scored before regulation ended. You'll notice the refs making the signal for a goal, which means the head ref then went over and watched the replay that's below and somehow decided the goal did not count.
I have no earthly understanding of how you can watch the replay and not see that the Badgers are celebrating with about .7 seconds left, meaning the goal had to have already been scored.
The next day the WCHA released this statement:
WCHA Acknowledges Error Made in DU vs UW game Friday
MADISON, Wis.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has acknowledged that an error occurred on a goal that was disallowed in Friday (Jan. 11) night’s conference game between host University of Denver and visiting University of Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin goal in question occurred as time expired, but according to the video replay system available to the referee, the puck was still in the crease when the clock in the available replay showed 0:00. But the game tape showed that the puck was in the net and back out of the net prior to 0:00.
The league regrets the error, and acknowledges that the goal should have counted.
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Ok, so they admit the error. But do they plan to do anything about it? The press released offers no recourse for the Badgers in this really poorly handled situation.
In a week where the NBA granted a replay of the final 50 odd seconds of a game due to scorekeeper error, I would think the WCHA would find itself able to grant the goal, thus tying the game. The error happened on Friday and the Badgers were still in town for a game Saturday night. What the conference SHOULD have done was required the two teams to play the overtime period before Saturday's game.
But even if you want to argue against the playing of extra time, I feel THE LEAST the WCHA should do it grant the tie so that both teams get a point in the standings. As it stands, Denver received the points for the win (which they don't deserve and didn't earn) and Wisconsin ended up with nothing.
Of course, to prove that they weren't the peons in this situation and that they wouldn't take the loss lying down, Wisconsin went in on Saturday night and absolutely embarrassed Denver 7-2.
Prior to Saturday night, DU had allowed 2 or fewer goals in 15 of it's 17 wins.
Wisconsin scored 3 in the first period.
DU's starting goalie was pulled with 2 mins left in 2nd period. The other goalie has played 2:08 all season.
