We bought the Tsongas, but not what this referee is selling
Fans already anticipated a high level of intensity during the weekend series between the River Hawks and the defending National Champion Boston University Terriers. That intensity multiplied when Tim Benedetto, the referee from the Hockey East Championship Game, was seen officiating this game.
This left many fans questioning why Benedetto was allowed to call the first game between the ‘Hawks and Terriers after the infamous “no goal” call last March. The truth is that the referees for games are assigned well in advance.
“This is a decision that is made near the beginning of September for games around this point in the season,” said Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna. “The only restriction we may have is if an official is unable to make trips to teams further away such as Maine or Vermont.”
With Lowell not that far out of reach Commissioner Bertagna has no intention of going out of the way to keep Benedetto away from the Tsongas Arena.
“He [Benedetto] has been one of the top referees for many years here, and we are not going to forget that because of one issue,” Bertagna said. “Mr. Benedetto feels bad about the way that things went, and regrets what happened that game.”
The single issue, a questionable call back of a goal in the Hockey East Championship game, may require the blame to be spread on other areas aside from Benedetto. With all NHL reviews going to an office in the Toronto Headquarters, the TD Garden did not have sound in their replay booth.
If a similar situation should arise, and there was still no audio replay was available, Bertagna mentioned the use of video replay from networks covering the game such as NESN.
Also in defense of the decision made by Benedetto was a rule in place which states that if the referee has intention to blow the whistle, but is unable to, play will stop as if the referee blew the whistle.
“The rule was put into place from a conference tournament game a couple years ago between Boston College and New Hampshire,” Bertagna said. “When New Hampshire goalie Kevin Reagan lost his helmet, play should have been stopped, but no whistle was blown.”
While these are good steps towards any issues for the upcoming games it still makes UMass Lowell fans question why there could not be audio replay from NESN used against Boston University.
There are still questions as to why a man who was seen running to his car after the Hockey East Championship game would be used for the rematch. This is in no way saying that Benedetto should be banned from any UMass Lowell or Boston university games. The fact that he is one of the longest tenured referees in Hockey East shows he is a credible official. It does seem odd to use him the very first game between Boston University and UMass Lowell though.
With all the things that happened Commissioner Bertagna wanted River Hawk fans to realize that he knows there is still anger about what happened.
“I understand that the city of Lowell is still upset about what happened in March,” Bertagna said. “Hockey East is doing everything to make sure it does not happen again.”
Be that as it may, this may not be closure for River Hawks fans, and having to see Benedetto in the first rematch with the Terriers served as nothing but a painful reminder being rubbed in.
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