{"id":30428,"date":"2009-03-19T21:52:42","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T02:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2009\/03\/19\/this-week-in-the-wcha-march-19-2009\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:25","slug":"this-week-in-the-wcha-march-19-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2009\/03\/19\/this-week-in-the-wcha-march-19-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the WCHA: March 19, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here it is. We’re finally at the culmination of the WCHA season — the Final Five. <\/p>\n
I’ll try not to ramble on too long as I’m sure you all want to head on out to the Xcel Energy Center … or the bars. I don’t judge.<\/p>\n
Last week, we found out that the penalty crackdown worked … sort of. This week, I want to finally revisit the numbers in terms of roughing and major penalties. <\/p>\n
Thanks to doing this last year, we have the numbers from the 2005-06 season through this year — and remember, only conference games.<\/p>\n
2005-06:<\/b><\/p>\n
• 13 fighting majors with corresponding game disqualifications
\n• five extra game DQs (for cross-checking, kneeing, etc.)
\n• 71 total five-minute majors
\n• 96 total 10-minute penalties (misconducts, game misconducts, DQs)
\n• 40 double-minors for roughing
\n• 390 total roughing minors
\n• 60 unsportsmanlike conduct minors
\n• 31 penalties given at the ending mark of a period (20:00 or 5:00 in the case of overtime)
\n• 5,343 total penalties<\/p>\n
2006-07:<\/b><\/p>\n
• 22 fighting majors with corresponding game disqualifications
\n• 52 total five-minute majors
\n• 77 total 10-minute penalties
\n• 33 double-minors for roughing
\n• 379 total roughing minors
\n• 74 unsportsmanlike conduct minors
\n• 42 penalties given at the ending mark of a period
\n• 4982 total penalty minutes<\/p>\n
2007-08:<\/b><\/p>\n
• six fighting majors with corresponding game disqualifications
\n• 32 total five-minute majors
\n• 64 total 10-minute penalties
\n• 44 double-minors for roughing
\n• 388 total roughing minors
\n• 99 unsportsmanlike conduct minors
\n• 59 penalties given at the ending mark of a period
\n• 4414 total penalty minutes<\/p>\n
2008-09:<\/b><\/p>\n
• two fighting majors with corresponding game disqualifications
\n• one 5\/10 DQ for roughing; one 5\/10 DQ for excessive roughness
\n• 40 total five-minute majors
\n• 67 total 10-minute penalties
\n• 44 double-minors for roughing
\n• 432 total roughing minors
\n• 80 unsportsmanlike conduct minors
\n• 68 penalties given at the ending mark of a period
\n• 5219 total penalty minutes<\/p>\n
From last week, we already knew that the average number of penalties went up per game. Now, I’m kind of regretting not knowing the actual number of penalties per league contest as penalties went up to a number not seen in three seasons with 5,219 total penalty minutes — almost 1,000 more than last year.<\/p>\n
The number of penalties called after a final buzzer continued to go up, but the percentage of unsportsmanlike-conduct calls went back down to what it was in 2006-07 — 3%. The percentages of 10-minute misconducts (12.8%) and double-minors for roughing (3.4%) continue to be variable.<\/p>\n
Fighting majors, after a jump in 2006-07, have kept going down. Granted, we’ve still seen some five-minute majors with corresponding game disqualifications for other things, but not for fighting. The percentage of fighting fives and 10s went down from 2.0% of all PIMs last year to a measly 0.5% this season. <\/p>\n
We saw more roughing minors than in quite a few years, but the percentage actually went down — only 16.6% of all penalty minutes this year were roughing calls as compared to 17.6% last year. If you recall from last year’s column, this is reversing a trend — the percentages had been going up until this season.<\/p>\n
Again, feel free to interpret this data as you will. Going on one reader’s hypothesis from last year, the decline of roughing calls could be due to the game being called tighter — proven by the giant jump in penalty minutes, which in turn results in fewer players going past the boiling point. While I somewhat agreed with the point last year, this year it seems to make even more sense.<\/p>\n