Action Jackson: The Referee Was Dunn Like Dinner

Late in the third period of Harvard’s series-clinching win over Vermont on Saturday, Crimson senior Aaron Kim lay on his back in the crease as Catamounts goaltender Shawn Conschafter knelt on top of him, pinning his head to the ground with his blocker.

As Vermont cleared the puck and the play moved to the other end of the ice, referee Jack Dunn took one last look at the situation in the crease, turned and skated away—both arms at his side and the whistle in his pocket.

It was a pattern repeated all night—all weekend in fact—as Dunn slowly lost control of the game and the series.

“Things were getting pretty out of hand in the third,” said Harvard captain Dominic Moore. “There were a lot of cheap shots flying our way.”

With the referee unwilling or maybe just unable to get the game under control, the responsibility turned to the coaches.

Showing a lot of class, both responded to the challenge and did their jobs.

They also did someone else’s job—the refs’.

This game, this series and Vermont’s season were over when Moore scored on the power play to make it 5-1 in the third.

The series was probably over long before that, but the Catamounts certainly didn’t think so. After Moore’s goal they were sure.

And that’s when the referee lost complete control.

Dunn added to his own problems by botching the call on the play leading to the goal.

As the Crimson prepared to start the 4-on-3 advantage, five Harvard skaters lined up to the right of Conschafter in the Vermont zone.

“Technically the ref shouldn’t drop the puck if there are too many players on the ice,” Moore said. “They obviously didn’t notice it.”

As the fifth Crimson skater eventually realized the error and hurried to the bench, it became obvious to the Vermont bench, the Catamounts’ fans and most observers in the arena that Harvard had too many men on the ice for several seconds.

It is doubtful if the incident would have drawn more than a slight protest from Vermont coach Mike Gilligan had Moore not scored the Crimson’s demoralizing fifth goal on the play.

“I can see why they’d be upset,” Moore said. “But it’s not our fault and I’m not going to wait around for them to call a penalty. I saw the opening and took it.”

But the Catamounts’ players and their coach also saw the opening and were incensed.

With the referee on the other side of the ice near the Harvard bench and the scorers’ box, Gilligan tried in vain to get the referee’s attention. Unable to do so, Gilligan grabbed a stick and proceeded to hit it against the boards in a seemingly futile effort to be noticed by Dunn.

Although Gilligan had the attention of most of the arena, Dunn made no move to indicate he noticed him or planned to talk.

It was not until most of the Vermont bench was screaming and Gilligan had made six or seven solid hits with the stick that Dunn skated over.

Dunn at least owed Gilligan an explanation, and the Catamounts’ coach nearly had to break a stick even to get his attention.

With a justifiably-angry Vermont team that had very little left to play for, the ensuing action on the ice was predictable.

The Catamounts started running at everything in a Crimson sweater, picking up six minutes worth of minor penalties in a span of just 2:57.

With Harvard on a 5-on-3 power play as a result, the cheap shots and dirty play did not stop.

“I was going for a puck in the corner and he looked like he was going for it, too,” Moore said. “All of a sudden he takes his elbow and the butt end of his stick to my face and I’m down. We weren’t even near the puck and he certainly didn’t make any attempt to play it.”

It wasn’t the only incident like that on the ice, and it certainly wasn’t the only one the referee saw and chose to ignore.

Dunn called a very tight game through the first two periods on Saturday night, handing out 26 minutes in penalties.

But as the game degenerated in the third and most referees would have called the game tighter, Dunn did the exact opposite.

That’s when the coaches stepped in.

Both Gilligan and Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni tried to call a timeout at 9:01 of the third. Although Vermont was charged with the timeout, both Mazzoleni and Moore indicated that it was the Crimson who originally took it.

“After the timeout that Mazzoleni called, there definitely was a different feel to the game,” Moore said. “I know for certain the Vermont coach told his team to settle down. It was a character move from both coaches to tell their players to act appropriately and settle down.”

Mazzoleni was equally impressed.

“Coach Gilligan did the right thing, as did I, which was to tell each team we wanted this thing to end in a positive manner without incident,” Mazzoleni said. “Both teams settled down and just played the last ten minutes.”

With his goaltender clearly upset and frustrated, Gilligan went a step further, replacing Conschafter with seven minutes to play and letting the senior leave the ice one final time to the cheers of the Vermont fans.

“I wanted to get him out of the traffic,” Gilligan said. “They were coming at us pretty hard. It was getting pretty emotional, and I didn’t want it to get embarrassing. I wanted to give him a breather.”

It was a class move.

In a series that could have gone horribly wrong in the final minutes, ending with an injury, a suspension or both, Mazzoleni and Gilligan did everything right when the referee was doing everything wrong.

—Staff writer Timothy Jackson can be reached at jackson2@fas.harvard.edu.