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You make a lot of really good points. I also think Pittsburgh is a great place to live for hockey (youth and professional). My issues are with the sport as a whole. There aren't enough NCAA hockey teams. Compare it to almost any other sport as mainstream as hockey. Spots are very very limited. That creates this terrible system where kids move away to pay to play juniors at 15-16 years old and don't start college til 22 or 23. The whole thing is broken and a$$-backwards. The amount of money, time and commitment are insane. I also understand other sports are getting there as well. It's still not the same though. Jimmy from South Park playing football for his varsity team can still get recruited to play NCAA football way easier than little johnny and his aaa hockey team. The whole thing has become a money making racket and a game where you are really just funding people above you in the food chain. My remaining boy has no shot at all at an NCAA scholarship for hockey. I'm guessing he will end up playing club hockey at a high level. He is half the baseball player he is a hockey player and based on recruiting to date will probably at least play division III baseball. I find that insane.

The back referee is the exact person to make that call. That is why they are there. There is no way the low official could have seen the spear through the crowd. Again, doesn't matter what the intent was. USA Hockey is very clear on it. Any spearing motion is 5+GM at a minimum. Not exactly sure who that official was, but I am familiar with the process for assigning those officials. They are all very experienced.

Just because you know him and he is a "good kid" doesn't preclude him from taking an unwise penalty. Are you implying that this official is not experienced? How do you know? Granted, for a critical call such as this, I would have consulted with my partner for sure; however, if an official sees a penalty, no matter where he or she is on the ice, he or she needs to make the call. Again, you are implying that since he was the back official that he could not effectively make this call, which is not a logical statement at all. The point being that this player committed a spearing penalty in a big game; the rules are clear. There is not a different rulebook when playoffs come around; the key is for the officials to effectively communicate with everyone. But again, it was the player who committed the penalty; he only has himself to blame.

Looked like an attempted spear to the groin… meets the criteria in the rulebook so there isn’t really an argument

This whole thread seems like it abruptly turned into Western Pennsylvania Youth Hockey’s version of “Grumpy old Men.” Frankly, it reminds me of a multi-generational commiseration of the “back-in-my-day” old farts sipping coffee and telling stories about how they should have listened to their mom & dad and played baseball (or football); instead wasting their childhood years and dreams by playing hockey in Pittsburgh…since, ya know…’nobody from Pittsburgh ever gets noticed, scouted, or goes anywhere.’ I can still picture so many people saying, “Sorry kid, you should have been born further north if you wanna play hockey…yeah, you gotta be from Canada, New England, Michigan, or Minnesota if you want to ever go anywhere in this sport.” It’s weird how there’s never any mention about how quickly this region has progressed from next to nothing as a legitimate hockey region—when discussed by all of the blue-blood and traditional North American hockey markets (i.e. Boston/New England, Buffalo/Western NY, Detroit/Michigan, Minnesota, Toronto/Ontario, Montreal/Quebec, even Western Canada). It’s truly included in those circles now and accepted as such when considering the talent pool of hockey players that come out of Pittsburgh…only not on par with their overall numbers, of course. Put it another way, it appears that Pittsburgh is way past the emerging hockey market problems. You don’t ever hear stories about people complaining about 5:00 AM available ice slots; only having 3-4 ice rinks available within an hour drive; or having generations of parents that never skated or played hockey and having to resort to being self-taught… or receive marginal hockey knowledge and coaching from guys that were only qualified because they were born in Canada or Maine.

You forgot wasting your money and "drinking the Kool-Aid"!

Yep. Automatic 5/shower. This doesn’t rise to the level of a match.

One would suspect that the AAA Champion would disagree quite strongly?

Be careful stating such a thing on this forum. Unless you have your kid play AA hockey within 15 minutes from your home until they head to college you are an irresponsible parent.

0.01% maybe.

If? They made it and played well enough to prove they should have been there. So quit your crying. They beat both Indiana and Esmark during the regular season. And they beat the Vengeance in the tournament.