Ineffective officiating casts dark shadow over hockey finals

First, let me make one thing clear: I am not usually a proponent of criticizing officiating. In any sport.

If an umpire has a wide strike zone, expand your batting eye. If a referee has a tendency for calling soft fouls in the paint, ease up on the contact under the basket. If skating judges prefer jumps to footwork, you’d better get some more air.

Because, although there are rules in every sport, officiating remains highly subjective. It is what it is, and human error is inevitable in every case.

Gryphons drop Game 1 in OUA Finals

The Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team fell 2-0 to the Laurier Golden Hawks in tonight's opening game of the best-of-three OUA Finals between the two teams. Laurier continues to be undefeated in regulation this season while it was the Gryphons first playoff defeat.

Liz Knox, the league's top goaltender, made 29 saves to nail down the shutout and Caitlin Muirhead and Paula Lagamba tallied for the 'Hawks.

Laurier comes into this series as the odds-on favourite to repeat as OUA champs for the 7th consecutive year. Remember, these two teams went the distance in the OUA Finals last year, with Guelph winning Game 1 before Laurier bounced back with wins in Games 2 and 3 to take the series, and the league title.

The series shifts back to Guelph on Saturday afternoon at the Gryphon Centre on the University of Guelph campus. I, along with Greg Layson will have the call live on the Streaming Sports Network, starting at 2pm as the Gryphons will be fighting to keep their season alive.