Post Game Interviews 11-20-10 vs St. Cloud State

First off, prayers and well wishes to Travis Novak. I believe I speak for everyone in saying nobody wants to see that happen.

Now, I have to say, part of me feels bad for referees Justin Brown and Max Battimo. I've been in similar situations reffing soccer where a game is going along fine and a minute later it feels like you're arranging deck chairs on the Titanic the game is going so bad. Quite frankly they have nobody to blame but themselves. The game was getting out of hand in the first period and they didn't do anything to stop it. Hooks, holds, slashes, some roughing after the whistle was all going on and they just looked the other way. Sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don't, and they got burned big time.


Interviews tonight are with Mark Pustin (who got his first career goal) and goalie Chris Kamal. I gave Coach Shyiak a break tonight, he was doing enough talking with others and he wanted time with his kids during the Skate with the Seawolves. The interviews were done on the ice during the Skate with the Seawolves so there may be some trouble with audio.

A great effort tonight by the team and they certainly deserved to win but 2:18 of 5 on 3 is a tall order for any team and that was the difference in the game. Pustin, Bruijsten, and Kwas scored tonight for UAA and Kamal had another great outing. I didn't like the call on Bailey, I felt Roe turned to draw the penalty and it should have been boarding, he wasn't fully turned with his back to the boards. And way to go refs for completely screwing up that situation by trying to send off Haddad and using replay to confirm was even worse.

As for the Novak incident, I am completely baffled as to why Gorham was given a penalty at all. Novak was turning, lost an edge, and was falling when Gorham hit him and it was not really from behind. By the time Novak was falling, Gorham was already well in on the check and Gorham, frankly, did not do anything wrong. I understand I will take some heat for this but I stand by what I say. Novak turned when he felt the pressure from Gorham and that is what caused him to get hurt. It's become a common practice these days for players to do and try to draw the penalty and I don't like it. Again, I hope all is well with Travis Novak but, my view he turned after pressure from Gorham.