Friday night at the 0:37 mark of the third period, UND forward Michael Parks appeared to have scored a goal that would have given the University of North Dakota a 2-0 lead over the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Or did he?
The call on the ice by the officials was no goal. This call was confirmed by a video review when National Collegiate Hockey Conference on ice officials CJ Beaurline and Derek Shepherd went to the penalty box and reviewed the replay. (Click to view video of goal, @1:25)
Not so fast!
The refs skated over to the UND bench and talked to UND head coach Dave Hakstol. After a brief discussion, the refs then skated back across the ice to review the play in question, for a second time. I have been watching college hockey for a long time; I have never seen that happen before, ever. That was a first.
This time, the second review took a considerable amount of time. The fans in the stands were getting antsy. While the review in the penalty box was going on, the television monitors in the Ralph Engelstad Arena press box showed multiple replays confirming that the puck had entered the net and exited. It became obvious to us that Michael Parks has scored a legit goal.
After further review goal stands
After about a 10-minute delay, the refs reemerged from the penalty box and confirmed that Michael Park had in fact scored a good goal. Finally, giving UND a 2-0 lead.
Now, it’s easy to sit in the press box and officiate a hockey game, especially when you have the benefit of multiple replays. The question is what video were the officials reviewing? How come they couldn’t see the puck enter and leave the net? Did they have all of the videos available to them?
During the postgame press conference Coach Hakstol was confident that Michael Parks had scored a goal. Apparently, during the initial delay the UND coaching staff had seen the goal in question and had verified (via a replay monitor by their locker room) that the puck had gone in the net.
“We did, but we’ve got the benefit of some technology,” Hakstol said. “It’s not about that, though. The officials did a good job. They were patient in going back and looking for the video. I’m not sure if that (video of the goal in question) was available right away or not. The bottom line is you want get the call right and that was the right call.”
Coach Dave Hakstol on whether he had asked the refs to take another look at the goal.
“Yeah, I did,” Hakstol said. “They don’t come and ask coaches what they should do. They go and make calls on their own. I thought they did a real good job.”
The system worked in this instance, but it shouldn’t have taken this long to make a decision. It was obvious from the replay (in the press box) that UND has scored a legitimate goal. The replay officials need to have all of the videos available to them so they can make the right call in a timely manner.
