Vermont Coach Lashes Out at Official

Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon ’92 suspended himself for one game following a post-game tirade last Friday evening in which he lambasted the officiating crew supervising the Catamounts’ controversial 3-2 home loss to Clarkson.

Throughout the tongue lashing, Sneddon singled out referee John Murphy, who, after arriving at the rink with just minutes remaining in the second period, issued three straight penalties to UVM, then disallowed a Catamount tally that would have tied the score with 14 seconds to play, according to the Burlington Free Press.

So just how bad were Murphy’s calls?

“It’s inexcusable,” Sneddon said immediately following the conclusion of the contest. “He’s been awful all year and he continues to be awful. That’s why he won’t be reffing in the future, but you know what? He shouldn’t be reffing this weekend, either.”

At the time, Sneddon acknowledged that his comments would likely draw a fine from the ECAC.

He publicly apologized the following day before watching the Catamounts edge St. Lawrence 4-1 Saturday evening.

None of which stopped Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 from having a laugh at the expense of his former teammate.

“I, in general, find it pretty humorous, as I’m sure he would if it was me,” Donato said. “We’re all capable of losing our cool, I think, to a certain point. But Kevin’s a great

guy...and I think it shows great character that he was able to step forward and take that kind of action.”

BYE, BYE, BYE

With just two weekends of conference play remaining, the ECAC playoff picture remains largely unsettled.

As of now, seven teams are mathematically in the running for the three unclaimed opening-round byes—only Cornell has secured a trip through to the second round—and just as many remain eligible for home ice in the first round.

More realistically, though, the battle for the byes will come down to Colgate, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Vermont.

For the moment, the Raiders lead the quartet with 26 points, one point ahead of the Crimson and four ahead of both Dartmouth and Vermont.

That does not, however, account for the extra game Harvard has left on its schedule as a result of the Beanpot.

Arguably, Colgate has the easiest path to the conference tournament. The Raiders will face Union and Rensselaer this weekend, ninth and 10th in the ECAC, respectively, before closing out its slate at Clarkson and St. Lawrence, Harvard’s opponents this weekend.

Not that Dartmouth and Vermont don’t have cupcakes left on their schedule as well. Both face Princeton and Yale this weekend, 11th and 12th in the league at present.

Though neither is a gimme—just ask Colgate, which tied the Bulldogs 0-0 on Friday—those two wins will no doubt ratchet up the pressure on the Crimson to hold serve this weekend at home against the Golden Knights and Saints, demonstrably more difficult opponents.

Of course, should all four bye contenders sweep this weekend, final seeding will be determined next weekend, when Harvard and Brown—who play Tuesday—head north to square off against Dartmouth and Vermont.

Given its favorable position, though, Harvard won’t be watching the scoreboards.

After all, the Crimson needs only win out to secure a week-long respite.

“We just need to focus on what we can do,” sophomore Ryan Maki said. “We don’t have any influence on any of them. You can’t determine what one team is going to do one weekend. It’s out of your hands, so you’ve just got to concentrate on what you can do.”

TALKING ’WISE

Were the NCAA tournament to start today, two ECAC clubs—Cornell and Harvard—would be packing their bags for one of the four regional sites, with a third, Colgate, on the cusp of entry.

Before adjusting for the bonus points awarded for quality wins, the Raiders sit in 14th in the pairwise rankings, the projected final spot for an at-large bid.

But, even assuming that no upsets in conference tournaments would force the committee to invite a higher-ranked school at Colgate’s expense, the bonus points awarded for quality wins would in all likelihood bump the Raiders off the playoff bubble.

That system—which would bump the Raiders with a 20-8-2 record, but give 20-12-1 Minnesota, winner of just two of its last eight a No. 1 seed—doesn’t sit perfectly with ECAC coaches like Donato.

“I’ll be honest,” Donato said. “I don’t like the way it is, and I don’t know enough about it to know what I’d want to suggest. I find it somewhat odd that a team can have a .500 record in their league and be in the top 10 or 12 teams in the country.”

“I guess they have great records outside their league,” he added. “But I think the reason behind some of that is that a lot of teams in that conference—say, the WCHA—they play a lot of their outside-of-conference games at home. They’re not going to play an away game at Cornell, but they will play some of the lesser teams at home...I think that there probably has to be a better weight on playing home games and away games.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.