The CCHA announced Tuesday that Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson has been fined and been publicly reprimanded for a violation of the league’s good conduct regulations.
“The CCHA offers a number of postgame means for a coach to properly express their concerns over situations and issues that may have arisen over the course of the contest,” said CCHA commissioner Fred Pletsch in a statement. “There is no excuse or acceptable explanation for public comments about officials that are derogatory in nature.”
The punishment comes after Jackson was critical of a call made in last Friday’s game against North Dakota. A potential Notre Dame tying goal was waved off, apparently because referee Keith Sergott thought the puck was frozen and whistled the play dead.
“Regardless of what they said, it was just an awful call,” Jackson said in his postgame news conference, as reported by the South Bend Tribune. “The puck was free between [North Dakota goalie Clarke Saunders’] legs, I could see it from the bench with one eye. It was not frozen. The puck was laying behind him, in between his legs.”
Last season, Jackson issued an apology after being critical of the officiating in a game, calling it “unbelievably bad.”
The league’s good conduct regulations say “No employee (e.g., coaches, athletic staff members, etc.) or student-athlete of a member institution shall make derogatory remarks to the press or public about opponents or officials.”
