World Junior News

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On Tuesday evening, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith released a statement, stating that senior forward Kamil Sadlocha is returning home and will not practice or compete with the team for an unspecified period of time after Sadlocha directed racial slurs at Michigan State’s Jagger Joshua.

Here is Smith’s statement:

Overall, a strong statement from Ohio State; much better than the hastily thrown together word salad on Monday night. Though it seems as if some of the timing here can be called into question. While Smith states this process has gone on “over the past week”, that does not explain why Sadlocha dressed and participated in both of Ohio State’s games last weekend—something that seemed to be the tipping point for Joshua to share publicly what happened.

Ohio State’s approach to this has seemed much more reactive than proactive, but it at least says something that the public outcry about the incident was enough that they felt that they did have to react to it.

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Michigan State senior Jagger Joshua posted a statement on Monday evening via his Twitter account that he had been the recipient of multiple racial slurs from a player in a November 11th game against Ohio State.

Joshua also stated that an official heard what was said and the player was given a game misconduct penalty. The Ohio State player was not named by Joshua, but here is the box score from that game.

Ohio State released the following statement on Monday evening:

Whatever “resolution” they claim was reached, it did not seem to involve a suspension for the player involved, as he played in both of Ohio State’s games last weekend, nor, most importantly, did their so-called resolution seem to involve the victim in the incident, as Joshua clearly seems far from satisfied with the response from Ohio State and the Big Ten.

The Big Ten also released a statement on Monday evening stating that they took no further action due to a lack of “indisputable evidence”.

The incident, and the complete lack of accountability and consequences to come from it, is sadly, not unfamiliar to the world of men’s college hockey. In 2019, Hockey East confirmed that a player from Boston College directed a racial slur at Providence forward Vimal Sukumaran, but chose to take no action because they could not determine the source of the slur.

It hopefully goes without saying that slurs directed at Joshua are completely unacceptable, and should have no place in hockey. But once again, the truly disappointing part of this the action, or lack thereof by those in positions of leadership. Their choices for who deserves protection and who doesn’t speak volumes louder than whatever empty buzzwords they can regurgitate into a press statement.

Matt Christians

Goofy stuff happens in hockey games. Usually once or twice in a season, an unfortunate team will end up giving up a goal while possessing the puck during a delayed penalty, either thanks to a bad bounce or errant pass will find its’ way into a vacated goal.

That happened twice on Friday evening. But that’s not the strangest part. Adding to the already astronomical improbability is that in both instances, the player credited for the goal was the player that the delayed penalty had been called for.

In Kalamazoo last night, Western Michigan’s Cam Knuble was found guilty of a holding infraction. During the delayed penalty, Minnesota Duluth got possession of the puck behind their own net. They tried to force a pass up the middle that hit off the back of their own goalie and into the net.

Here’s the play:

I especially enjoy the official pulling Knuble out of the celebration handshake to take him to the box.

If that was something you’d never seen before, you’d only have to wait a few hours to see it again. Later that evening in Madison, Lindenwood forward Joe Prouty committed a slashing infraction. Wisconsin pulled their goalie during the delayed penalty, and trying to establish an attack, attempted to make a regroup pass back to their own defenseman. But the pass was errant and it ended up sliding into the vacant net.

Here’s the play:

As the last Lindenwood player to touch the puck, Prouty was given credit for the empty-net goal. The goal put Lindenwood ahead in the third period, but the Badgers mercifully rallied for a 4-3 victory, so the error wasn’t fatal.

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The Big Ten has announced a one-game suspension for Minnesota’s Logan Cooley stemming from a hit in last night’s 5-2 Minnesota victory over Michigan.

Cooley was assessed a five-minute major for cross-checking at 6:35 of the second period last night for a hit on Michigan’s Eric Ciccolini. Cooley was initially escorted off the ice, but after video review, Cooley was brought back and just given a five-minute major penalty with no misconduct attached.

Here is the hit in question:

Michigan interim head coach Brandon Naurato expressed frustration with the call after the game, saying he thought it should have been a game disqualification. Cooley would go on to score a 5×3 power play goal in the third period that extended Minnesota’s lead to 4-2 and helped put the game out of reach.

Ciccolini headed to the locker room after the hit, but did eventually return to last night’s game.

After further review, the Big Ten decided to suspend Cooley for Friday night’s contest against Michigan.

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The battle between #2 Minnesota and #3 Michigan was expected to be one of the marquee match-ups of the Big Ten season between two of the conferences preseason favorites, but illness running through both teams cast a pall over the series. Minnesota was without starting goalie Justin Close and forward Aaron Huglen, who did not travel to Ann Arbor due to illness, but that was nothing compared to Michigan, who was without six players, including the nation’s leading scorer Adam Fantilli, and defenseman Steven Holtz, who was reportedly hospitalized due to illness. Every available Wolverine dressed in Thursday night’s game, including third string goalie Tyler Shea, who dressed as a skater and was listed as a forward on the team’s line chart.

The shorthanded Michigan team put up a fight for nearly two periods, but ultimately ran out of gas, falling 5-2 to Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers struck first when Rhett Pitlick put a perfectly-placed shot into the upper corner of the net from the left circle to give Minnesota the early lead. But Michigan responded on the power play late in the first period when Dylan Duke jammed home a puck in front of the net.

The second period would follow a similar pattern with Pitlick scoring first to put the Gophers ahead and Dylan Duke responding afterwards with a power play goal. Jimmy Snuggerud would score his ninth goal of the season 1:20 after Duke scored to give Minnesota the lead after two periods.

All hopes of a Michigan third period comeback vanished when the Wolverines were given a protocol penalty for not taking the ice in time for the third period. The resulting penalty gave Minnesota a 5×3 advantage, which Logan Cooley converted on. Luke Mittlestadt tacked on another insurance goal and the thin Michigan bench didn’t really have the gas in the tank to mount a serious comeback.

The two teams complete their series on Friday evening.

Notes and Thoughts:

-I guess credit/blame the specter of Mel Pearson, because this had the feel of a game that probably shouldn’t have been played last night, and probably wouldn’t have been if Michigan hadn’t been the subject of a scandal last season where they cancelled a game in which they would have had a full line-up.

(For the record, I don’t buy the argument that because it was a conference game, the sanctity of the standings were what caused this game to be played, especially in this conference.)

There’s not too much Michigan interim head coach Brandon Naurato can say due to medical privacy issues, but you can certainly read between the lines in his post-game press conference last night about the situation they were dealing with:

NAURATO: I’ll say one thing: Brian Brewster, Darryl Conway. The Michigan medical team, Michigan Hospital. I can’t imagine if this was a junior or minor pro team without the resources that we have at Michigan. That’s why they’re the leaders and best. Everyone’s pulled together and done an unbelievable job to take care of these kids. That’s not a plug. It’s real. They saved some guys. It’s a big deal.

On if he was scared for his players:

NAURATO: Yeah, big time. Yeah. Without getting into detail, the first phone call I got, I hope I never get again.

By all indications, it would not be a surprise if Naurato had his interim tag lifted at the end of this season.

-Minnesota took care of business on a night that was pretty much a must-win given the circumstances. They’ve got some guys that can really fire the puck, especially when given a little time and space, which the Michigan defense tends to allow, even under the best of circumstances.

It was also a good opportunity to get back-up Owen Bartoszkiewicz into net a start after two very shaky starts early in the season in which he gave up four goals in each game. Back in his home state, Bartoszkiewicz put up very solid numbers, stopping 29 or 31 and only allowing two power play goals on second-chance opportunities. He likely still has a long ways to go towards proving he’s capable of being a starter one day, but that was at least the first step.