Season 5 Episodes 50 & 51 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; ConteCast Crossover and Clear and Obvious. This week, in the second episode of the week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom and Rob Gilreath were joined by Anthony Smite and Brendan Mahoney, hosts of the ConteCast podcast, Boston College hockey’s #1 podcast. With the ConteCast crew, the guys traded questions about their respective schools and they discussed the upcoming NCAA tournament.
In the third episode of the week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom and Rob Gilreath were joined by CCHA Director of Officiating, Marco Hunt. In this episode, the guys discussed the officiating in the CCHA this past season, how officials are selected for the conference playoffs, some of the controversial calls in the CCHA this season and humanizing officials. Tim told a story about the first Michigan Tech road game he ever attended.
The Trading Of Knowledge
The guys a significant time at the beginning of the show trading information about Michigan Tech and Boston College. Brendan talked about the season being a special one for Boston College team and fans. The guys discussed how students tickets work at Boston College. Tim brought up the fact no team has won the national title who didn’t win the Beanpot Tournament and Brendan was quick to dismiss this as a possibility given how talented Boston College’s roster is this season. Brendan flipped the table for a few minutes and asked about several Michigan Tech players, including Kyle Kukkonen and Ryland Mosley.
Rob asked Brendan and Anthony what Michigan Tech fans can expect from Boston College during their matchup. Anthony and Brendan talked about Boston College’s success on the power play and penalty kill and pointed out several players on the fourth line that can shine in moments. They also talked about Boston College not having dressed an extra forward all season long.
Providence Regional
After learning about each other’s teams, the guys changed focus to the matchup between Michigan Tech and Boston College. Dustin thought the key for Michigan Tech will be to play tight defense and bottle Boston College up. Brendan agreed with Dustin’s assessment and talked about some stupid penalties that Boston College took in their game against Denver earlier in the season. The guys discussed Austen Swankler being the main pot stirrer on Michigan Tech’s lineup and how he will likely not be playing in the game against Boston College.
National Tournament Predictions
The guys spent the back half of the ConteCast episode talking about the entire NCAA Tournament field, starting with the St. Louis regional. Anthony Brendan and Tim all picked Michigan State to win against Western Michigan. Dustin predicted a Western Michigan upset. Brendan was the only one to pick Michigan to beat North Dakota.
The next matchup discussed was Denver versus UMass. All of the guys picked Denver to win. Anthony and Brendan picked Boston University to win over RIT. Brendan put aside his hate for his rival school and talked about BU being the deepest team in the country. Anthony and Dustin both picked Omaha to beat Minnesota with Dustin crediting his pick to Minnesota laying eggs in recent tournaments. Next up was the matchup between Maine and Cornell. Brendan thought that this would be one of the best first round matchup and Dustin was on the Maine bandwagon thanks to his gambling habit. The final matchup discussed was the matchup between Wisconsin and Quinnipiac. This is the game Brendan picked to be the best first round matchup and he picked Quinnipiac to win by a narrow margin.
The guys moved ahead to their Frozen Four predictions. Dustin picked Boston College, North Dakota, Maine and Boston. Brandan picked Boston College, Michigan State, Denver and Minnesota. Anthony picked Boston College, Michigan State, Omaha and Denver.
To end the predictions, the guys gave their national champion picks. In the shocker of the century, Anthony and Brendan picked Boston College and Dustin thought it would be a title game between Boston College and Boston University (though he didn’t pick a winner).
An Imperfect Science
Starting off the conversation with Marco Hunt, Tim asked Marco for his thoughts on the officiating in the CCHA this season. Overall, Marco thought it went well and was happy he was able to execute his plan to use officials from other conferences. He talked about this creating depth and experience for younger officials and gave the officials a chance to get better throughout the season. Tim asked Marco to explain how the officials were chosen for the CCHA quarterfinal games and Marco talked the selection process being based on regular season performance and which officials handle tough situations the best. Marco talked about the evaluation process being a year long process.
Tim also asked Marco about whether CCHA officials will be working any of the NCAA regional games. Marco talked about the one crew who will be working and explained all of the challenges of filling the NCAA officiating roster for a tournament. The guys talked about officials over correcting sometimes in an attempt to show their lack of bias against certain teams.
Instant Replay
The guys talked about how instant replay has changed sports since it was introduced. Marco stressed the fact that replay is available to correct egregious errors and not to officiate the game. He talked about his role as Director of Officiating to provide his officials with the tools and procedures to make the correct calls. Marco also talked about his desire to see officials treated more fairly by coaches, fans and players. The guys talked about the NCAA putting more of the onus on the coaches to challenge and Marco said he wanted to mirror the NHL rule which results in a penalty for a lost challenge.
In a related Patron question at the end of the show, Marco was asked about the procedure for conducting and official review and whether the on ice officials have an off ice official that they can consult with. The question also asked if there was a head official or not. Marco said there is a replay technician who’s duty is to slow down/speed up/zoom in the replay for the officials at their request. Marco talked about both officials coming to an agreement on a call during a review then having the official who made the initial call be the one to announce the results of the review on the ice.
To Strike Or Propel Forcibly With The Foot
The guys talked about Jack Works’ “kicking” goal against Minnesota State which was ruled a good goal after review. Marco provided excellent clarification to the rule and said for it to be a kick, the energy of the puck must be achieved by the kick. Marco also admitted that he would have called Works’ goal a kick and waived it off. Rob provided his view of the play as it related to soccer and how some goals are “kicked” in a similar fashion. The guys discussed the vagueness of some of the rules and how vagueness can be good for allowing officials to interpret nuances in certain plays.
Awarded Goals and Penalty Shots
The next topics of conversation were awarded goals and Michigan Tech’s penalty shot against Minnesota State. Tim asked for clarification when a goal is awarded with no goalie in net and Marco explained it’s used when there is a clear patch to the goal with no defender.
The guys pivoted to the call against Minnesota State for covering the puck in the crease which lead to a Michigan Tech penalty shot. Marco thought there was no controversy surrounding the call as a player is not allowed to gather the puck with their hand or body while in the crease. The guys complimented the official who made the call for his positioning during the play which allowed him to see the infraction and make the call.
Later in the show the guys briefly circled back to the penalty shot scenario and got clarification from Marco on which players can take the penalty shot in certain situations.
Accountability
The guys discussed some of the hostility directed towards officials from fans. Marco talked about some of the consequences that officials face when they make errors in games, the largest of which was not getting the opportunity to officiate the higher stakes games. The guys talked about the consequences not being public facing, and how doing so would provide no benefit and only add fuel to the fire. The guys talked about the ridiculous actions by some parents towards young officials during youth sporting events.
Massive Committment
Marco stressed the point that officials at all levels, but especially the Division One level have a massive commitment to the games they’re officiating. He talked about the official’s pay structure, the travel time away from home and the fitness required to be an official. Marco specifically talked about sending CCHA officials to Alaska and Alaska Fairbanks and the time commitment involved. The guys talked about how obvious it is that officials know the rules which allow them to make split second calls during a game. Marco talked about his process of sending a handful of clips each week to league officials and coaches which outline the correct and incorrect ways to call certain plays.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately 26 minutes long. The ConteCast Patron content includes a refresher on Tech’s tournament results last season. There was a discussion on the Finnish heritage in the Copper County. The guys discussed the ticket prices at the St. Louis regional and the regional itself. The guys discussed their travels to the Allentown regional last season. The guys discussed the drive times in the Midwest and East Coast. Brendan talked about some Twitter beefs between Boston College and UMass fan accounts. Tim asked the Boston College guys about a football coach.
The Marco Hunt Patron content includes a discussion on the possible rule changes that may be happening next season.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 93 minutes with the ConteCast crew and 58 minutes with Marco Hunt.
RAW AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Silver Level ($25/ mo) or above which includes unedited audio and usually drops the night the podcast is recorded.
RAW VIDEO: This post is for patrons at the Gold Level ($10/mo) or above which includes unedited video and usually drops the morning after the podcast is recorded.
EXTENDED AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Black Level ($5/mo) or above which includes extended audio content and usually drops the night after or 2nd morning after the podcast is recorded.
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