Despite hockey dad’s laser pointer nonsense, Medway-Ashland girls lose appeal to replay
Last Wednesday in Massachusetts, a man was ejected from his daughter's high school hockey game for shining a laser into the eyes of the opposition.
Seriously. The next time you find yourself thinking minor hockey's behavioral education seminars for parents are unnecessary, consider this man. Apparently, the fact that it's not okay to attempt to blind the opposition is something some people need to be told.
As Medway-Ashland head coach Kurt Carter told the MetroWest Daily News, the fan started using the laser pointer when Winthrop went down 1-0 in the game. But it wasn't until after Winthrop tied the game 1-1 that others in the stands started to realize what was going on.
An assistant football coach at Winthrop was the first to notice the laser pointer shining off the boards. As the coach and Winthrop Athletic Director Peter Gobiel started to make their way to the other side of the rink, they saw a Medway-Ashland fan stand up and yell at the laser-pointing Winthrop fan.
Medway-Ashland would go on to lose the game 3-1. Feeling the laser had played a role in the outcome, they challenged the result with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA).
They were disappointed Friday to learn that their appeal to replay the tournament hockey game had been rejected.
Web Pro News titled their story on this incident "Girls ice hockey game ruined by terrible father," and while that might be hilarious hyperbole, this guy really is a piece of work.
This isn't even the first time he's done this. No, he has a history of treating his teenage daughter's hockey games like the final battle in Moonraker.
According to WHDH, this time last year, during a tournament game between Winthrop and Wilmington High, Wilmington's coach complained to officials that a player on his team was having a light shined in her eyes. MIAA officials assured him they had found the culprit and it wouldn't happen again.
But it did happen again, and, this time around, it may have played a role in the final score as Winthrop took on top-ranked Medway-Ashland.
The father began using the laser shortly after Medway scored the game's first goal midway through the third period and, conveniently, the uptick in laser activity coincided with Medway surrendering three straight goals to suffer a major upset to 8th-ranked Winthrop.
But the MIAA argued that the laser wasn't the reason for the loss, and that on-ice calls can't be overturned anyway. From the Metrowest Daily News:
"It's a very upsetting incident, but unfortunately it doesn't change the outcome of the game," MIAA spokesman Paul Wetzel said yesterday.
The association's deputy director, Bill Gaine, ruled that referees' on-ice calls are final under the National Federation of Ice Hockey rules, Wetzel said.
As strange as this incident was, it wasn't the first time we've seen it in hockey. In fact, the green laser made a cameo in the NHL during a January 2010 game between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks, when Miikka Kiprusoff complained that someone at Rogers Arena was shining a laser in his eyes.
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