Hi and welcome to What's New in the CCHA.  Before you start complaining
           that it's like the title of a TV Show, just let me tell you that I'm
           extremely uncreative (unless I'm yelling at some opposing goalie, or the
           infamous CCHA Refs).

           Now for a boring introduction.  My name is Eric, and I'm a MICHIGAN fan
           living in Ann Arbor.  Ok, now that that's out of the way, let me get to the
           subject of this article.

           I had thought about using this article to introduce all the Hockey East
           fans to the CCHA.  Instead, I'm going to start in on one of my favorite
           subjects, blasting the CCHA Refs.

           There are 40 people certified to be On-Ice Officials in the CCHA, and with
           the exception of Dave Kronenberg, they all suck. (if you want to know why
           Kronenberg doesn't suck, e-mail me)  The most notoriously bad would have to
           be Steve Piotrowski.

           Mr. Piotrowski is a terrible referee.  Sadly for us Michigan fans, he gets
           assigned to a large number of Michigan games.  Want a description of how
           badly he sucks?  A popular recent example would be the Great Lakes
           Invitational (GLI).  Piotrowski made many questionable calls, and several
           questionable no calls.  The first questionable call came when Michigan
           State was about to score.  Just as the puck was about to go in the net,
           Piotrowski blew his whistle for no reason, thus disallowing a goal.
           Another example came later in the game.  This time he waited until Michigan
           had put the puck was in the MSU net.  At first he signaled goal, but as he
           skated over to report it, the linesman stopped him, and told him that the
           puck was kicked.  How could the linesman, who was out at the blue line,
           LOOKING THE OTHER WAY (video replays confirm this), see that happen better
           than Piotrowski who was 2 feet away from the goal?  Worse, why should
           Piotrowski believe them rather than his own judgement?  Eventually,
           Piotrowski waved off the goal.  Those were two examples, I have one more.
           Late in the third period, Michigan State scored a goal.  But, that's not
           it.  Michigan State scored the goal while one of their players was very
           visibly lying on Michigan Goaltender Marty Turco.  The rulebook clearly
           states that if there is anyone in the crease, there is no goal, and if that
           person is interfering with the goalie, then it's a penalty.  Instead,
           Piotrowski called it a goal.

           Next week: More Ref bashing along with a little bit of actual information
           about how the teams are doing

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