Ice Hockey

Referees overshadow Syracuse ice hockey’s season-opening loss to Bemidji State

Sam Ogozalek | Staff Writer

The officials called 14 penalties in Syracuse's loss to Bemidji State.

First a Bemidji State fan yelled, “Ah, you suck. You didn’t have trouble blowing that whistle earlier,” in the direction of the referees. About a minute later, a Syracuse fan chimed in, “Hey, blow the whistle. Call that.”

And it all culminated with a Bemidji State fan screaming, “Swallow your whistle, a**hole!”

The referees were the story of the night Friday at Tennity Ice Pavilion as 14 penalties overshadowed Bemidji State’s (1-0) 2-1 victory over Syracuse (0-1). The two teams accumulated 28 minutes of penalties and more than 22 minutes on the power play. Syracuse’s only goal came on the power play. SU’s penalty kill shut out Bemidji State’s power play in six tries.

“The girls might as well wear skirts out there,” Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Seventeen penalties last Saturday night … probably about 15 penalties (tonight). It’s just ridiculous. They call everything so it’s really hard to get a flow going for the girls.”

It started less than five minutes into the first period when SU’s Heather Schwarz was called for tripping. A little more than two minutes later, the Orange got whistled for another penalty trip, this time on Dakota Derrer.



Then Bemidji State took four penalties in a row, which led to a 5-on-3 and SU’s lone goal scored by Jessica Sibley. It was the only bright spot on the power play unit for SU, which finished 1-for-5.

“We just need to win those battles, get to the puck first and make smarter plays.” Sibley said. “We need to come back tomorrow with a lot more energy. I think penalties like that, they wreck the flow of the game but there’s nothing we can control about that.”

By the end of the first period, eight penalties had been called. SU was the beneficiary with only six penalty minutes and a one-goal lead.

But the tide reversed in the second period.

The Orange took three penalties in the first three minutes. Those penalties shifted momentum in favor of the Beavers and a little more than four minutes into the second, they knotted the score at one off the stick of Emily Bergland.

Then Bemidji state successfully killed off three SU power plays in a row.

“You try not to worry about the refs, but for sure they were calling a lot on both ends,” Orange defender Allie Munroe said.

SU’s Karleigh Scully and Bemidji State’s Alexis Joyce had to sit on the bench for an extra 10 minutes after their penalties in the second period for “abuse of officials” infractions.

Syracuse’s Savannah Rennie ended the second by getting called for tripping. She picked up the only penalty of the third period — interference.

When the game ended, the coaches from both teams met on the ice and the first thing mentioned was the referees.

“The first thing out of those (Bemidji State) coaches, from the different league (WCHA), ‘Are these the refs you have?’” Flanagan said. “I said, ‘Yeah these are two guys were going to see all the time.’ What are we going to do? We see those guys all year so I can’t bark at them.

If you guys look at the WCHA, and look at how many power plays in their games tonight … I’d bet there are two, three, maybe four power plays total. (Bemidji State’s) kid stepped on a puck and we got called for tripping. There are two referees out there. They’ve got to call that. It’s mind boggling.”





Top Stories