Sorry, Chris, but you’re wrong.

(This isn’t bias talking, either. As you know, there are really just two teams in the league that I can’t think about rationally — for different reasons. CC and MSU are not on that list.)

That’s a penalty. I don’t care if it’s the first period of an exhibition game, or if it’s overtime of the national championship game. That’s a penalty.

Canzanello got flat-out beat, and he grabbed Rapuzzi.

I’ve learned a lot of things covering this game as closely as I have in recent years, and one of the tops on the list is “If your best argument against a penalty is the timing of the call, you don’t have much of a realistic argument.”

As for the consistency argument, there aren’t a lot of hockey officials on Earth who are perfect when it comes to that. It doesn’t fly, because surely MSU and CC both got away with stuff over the course of the game that was more flagrant.

At least you didn’t have to deal with a six-on-three in the last 90 seconds of a game after nothing was called for the first 17:43 of the third period. :)

Emotions take over sometimes when you’re calling a game (duh), so I’m not ripping the MSU TV guys at all. But let’s not react that harshly four days later. That’s kinda silly.

I was at the game. Clearly a penality that needed to be called regardless at what point of the contest it came. If Rapuzzi had not been held he had a good chance to retain the puck and a scoring chance. The scoring chance ended because he was held.

Almost every game CC wins Owens talks about luck, he was not referring to any single play during that Friday game. Part of Owens standard post game report is to include the word “luck” after a CC win.

I just watched the video again and don’t agree that Canzanello was “flat-out beat” on the play. Rapuzzi dumps the puck before or at least as he’s getting stood up at the blue line. Canzanello rides him – perhaps for too long per the rules added last season, but how many times do you see that called at any point in a game? I

 think a case could be made that Rapuzzi takes a bit of a dive. Players in this league are simply too strong of skaters to just go down like – especially against a player like Canzanello who’s hardly the strongest D-man in the WCHA – yet that seems to happen a lot. I think a no-call there was in order

No question about it, this is a bad call. I can’t believe anyone would defend the official here. If you watch the video closely it’s just a matter of the two players getting tangled, and the CC player does as much grabbing as the MSU defenseman. The two players became tangled when the CC player lifts his left arm and tries to pull a swim move, he essentially throws himself off balance and makes an awkward progression to the ice. If you were at the game there were about 20 more legitimate opportunities to call a penalty at less crucial points in the game. Just garbage!

Any penalty called in overtime better be flagrant. Call me a hockey traditionalist, this was ticky-tacky at best.