Game 10 Live Blog: STU @ SMU Warmups

The Tommies are at the Halifax Forum tonight to take on Saint Mary's, who shutout STU 4-0 at the LBR on Sunday afternoon.  Sunday's game was a chippy, rough affair to say the least and Kenton Dulle and Corey Banfield received 1-game suspensions stemming from incidents in the game.  However, both Dulle and Banfield WILL play this weekend.  Their suspensions have been appealed and will not be reviewed until at least the first of the week.  Speaking of the Banfield hit/penalty/suspension, I want to address my comments at the time of the incident.  You'll recall that Banfield hit SMU's Cody Thornton, who hit his head on the stanchion and had to leave the game.  Having an excellent view of the play at the time, I did not believe the hit to be dirty, although the result was unfortunate.  I have not had the benefit of a video replay, so I can only go by how I viewed the hit in the split second that it happened.  I've heard the opinions of those who saw the hit on video afterwards and they have been divided, so without seeing it myself, I'll leave it at that.  That said, my on-air comments at the time were more in question of the fact that the linesman made the call about a minute later after play was stopped, and assessed a 5-minute major and game misconduct.  I wondered why the call was made in that fashion, particularly since the referee was only a few feet from the hit and from my point of view saw it take place.  Since then, the following rule has come to my attention:

Linesmen shall point out the offender and report to the Referee at the first stoppage, their version of any infraction of the rules which calls for ... a Major or Match penalty or any conduct calling for a Bench Minor, Misconduct, Game Misconduct or Gross Misconduct Penalty

This is from Rule 5.3 (d) of the Hockey Canada Rule Book

So while the validity of the official's call may be debated, proper procedure was followed.  So for that, I stand corrected.

Warmups are just getting underway.  St. Thomas will start Ben MacFarlane in goal (0-1, 7.32, .811) while Saint Mary's will counter with Neil Conway (3-0, 2.60, .892)

STU Scratches:

Charles Lavigne

Bryan Main

Tyler Dietrich

David Crossman

SMU Scratches:

William Harvey

Brandon Verge