MIAA Ice Hockey Committee to recommend longer penalties, consider move to 17-minute periods

Jim Clark Monday, May 09, 2016


The MIAA Ice Hockey Committee voted Monday in favor of the recommendation of switching to full penalty time in regular season and tournament games, a move that potentially also could lead to the approval to 17-minute periods.

The Ice Hockey Committee gave preliminary approval to the proposal, which would put Massachusetts in line with the rules set by the National Federation of High Schools. The NFHS allows for 17-minute periods as well as two-minute minor and five-minute major penalties, whereas the MIAA currently uses the modified 15-minute periods and penalties of 1½ minutes (minor) and four minutes (major).

The Massachusetts State Hockey Coaches Association long has argued for the need for longer game periods as one incentive of trying to keep hockey players in MIAA programs, as opposed to jumping to prep school or junior hockey.

Any proposed rule changes still would need to be passed by other MIAA committees. The Ice Hockey Committee is expected to make its formal presentation before the MIAA Board of Directors on June 7.

The 17-minute period proposal previously was passed by the Ice Hockey Committee in September 2014, but by a narrow 8-7-2 vote. Conversely, the proposal subsequently was rejected nearly unanimously by all other MIAA committees during the 2014-15 calendar, including the Tournament Management Committee (17-0) and the Board of Directors (13-0).

Among other items on the agenda Monday, the Ice Hockey Committee approved the realignment requests of four boys hockey programs. Cambridge and Revere/Malden both would drop from Division 2 to Division 3, while Lowell Catholic would bump from Div. 3 to Div. 2. Nashoba, which has won the Division 3A state championship the last two seasons, would move up to Div. 3.

The Ice Hockey Committee also formed a subcommittee that will study potential changes to the Division 1A (Super Eight tournament), which if passed would take effect for the 2017-18 season and tournament. The MSHCA, led by Waltham coach John Maguire and Burlington coach Bob Conceison, made a proposal last week to the IHC subcommittee that would make Division 1A a 16-team single-elimination tournament, with eight first-round “play-in” games. The eight winners would advance to form the single-elimination bracket, while the eight losers would drop back to their respective tournament brackets, much as the two play-in losers have under the other various formats used since 2001.

Among the other topics of conversation Monday, which were tabled to the Ice Hockey Committee’s next meeting in the fall:

- Power seeding of all tournaments in all divisions, which has been on the committee’s agenda since first presented by St. Mary’s girls coach Frank Pagliuca in spring 2015

- Home games in the first round of the boys hockey tournament, particularly in a potential reconfigured Division 1A (Super Eight) tournament

- Changing the postseason overtime structure to six minutes of 4-on-4, then six minutes of 3-on-3 before proceeding to a shootout (currently 5-on-5 for six minutes, then 4-on-4)

So what wisdom! So instead of killing the joke that is 'The Super 8' (read: Private School State Championship) the great idea is TO EXPAND IT! Yes! Bring in more public school cannon fodder with the bigger gate receipts they offer by filling the stands.

"...make Division 1A a 16-team single-elimination tournament, with eight first-round “play-in” games. The eight winners would advance to form the single-elimination bracket, while the eight losers would drop back to their respective tournament brackets..."

Good God.

MIAA needs to pull its head out of its ass and make a 1A Private (Top 8 privates) and 1A Public tournament (Top 8 publics). Playing field isn't level and its a joke that Publics are expected to compete with schools that pull from all over.

And spend more and recruit and play together year around and work at getting their kids commits...and....and....and....

For all intents and purposes, 1A already is top privates with one or two publics thrown in to keep the "Hoosiers" feeling. Kumbaya.

Yeah and then when a private school gets bounced from their tournament they then get to compete in the public school tournament. Nice !

I think it would be fantastic if a school like Reading, Winchester, Hingham or another top public would set-up a 'student exchange program' with a school in Quebec (and Finland if they need a goalie) and show the privates the power of recruiting. 3-4 forwards, a big Western Canadian defensemen and a Finnish goalie... That would wake-up the MIAA.

Yeah, that would be great. Make it really hard for the town hockey players to live their dream of making varsity and give their parents something else to whine about.

How many town players do you think Hingham has?

7?

How about 23?

That was my guess.

from what i've heard doesn't Hingham have a fair amount of players who come through the BA system?

Hingham hockey supporters are divided between those that want to compete at a Super 8 level and those that just want to win, regardless of the level. The latter group would rather beat up on weak competition (much like its lacrosse team does) and win the D1 "Championship" and have parades than play really competitive hockey. I wouldn't be surprised if members of that group were behind the constant push on the D Board for separate private and public championships. If you can't beat the best, don't try.

I think the numerous realist here can see the Hoosiers like dream of a public ever standing a chance against the private schools is over. The gap has widened because the Catholic schools are competing against themselves and are continuously elevating their compete level through increased recruiting, spending more and having better coaching staffs. It's cute to say "if you can't beat the best, don't try" but the reality is you have no chance. Did you watch the D-1 state title game and then watch the Super 8 title game this past year? It was like watching Fitchburg State vs. USNH and then watching BC vs. Providence. If you couldn't see the difference you should refrain from posting on the topic.

I will say this, if a public can figure-out a way to get numerous kids to the next level (Jr.s & college) they will have a better chance of keeping kids (as freshmen and once they get offers to leave) and maybe, just maybe they will catch the once in a generation chance of competing in the Super 8 which it has now become.

Agreed. Realistically, you can't expect the Publics to compete with the Privates in hockey. Its not close to an even playing field as Catholics 100% recruit kids, have larger student populations and pull from a huge area while publics get what you get. There should be a Public Super 8 and Private Super 8 held separately.

So how is it the DBoard'ers see it and the MIAA can't? And spare the few DBoard'ers that believe it is still 2005 and the publics have a snowball's chance.

MIAA is inept.

Expanding the Catholic School High School Championship field to 16 teams is ridiculous when there might not be 16 Catholic schools in the entire state with hockey teams.

Because MIAA is an absolutely corrupt and incompetent organization. They make the NCAA look well-run. The very fact that they don't see that there is no way that public high school teams are in any way comparable to private and Catholic schools just shows their stupidity. How can you put up teams which are recruited from all over the country and overseas against teams made of whoever happens to go to that school. So there should absolutely be two separate Super 8s or just get rid of it all together.

Recruited from "all over the country and overseas"??? Try less than 20 miles from school in most instances. Last I checked, Catholics don't board or billet players.

I know AC was famous for having a few Russian kids right?

23? Let's see there was one on the 4th line this year and one on the 3rd line last year.

All of the others left town hockey when they were Squirts and maybe a few stayed through Peewees. All of them come from BA, BJT or BSB.

By leaving out an important fact, you just identified the real, underlying reason that Hingham and other "top" high school hockey programs can't compete--none (okay, maybe one or two) of Hingham's players play on the Tier 1 teams from any of those programs. The kids just aren't good enough to play Tier 1 and expecting them to compete against Catholics made up completely of Tier 1 players is ludicrous.

I'm not sure you know much about some of the players. Let's just say yes there are typically 10-12 kids that play Tier 1 for these programs and some play for the high school because oddly enough hockey might not be their recruited / primary sport or they chose to move on to academics in college rather than play at some D-3 college up in the hills of wherever after a year or two of juniors.

But that is in fact the difference. Top public kids can play with top kids from any school - you see it all summer and fall in the tournaments and during the summer at the camps and college combines. The difference is depth, or number of kids that can play at a high level. When a public has two lines and two sets of D that actually can play against four full lines it doesn't take long for the wheels to come off so yes, you are right.

Sorry, I was using the generic term "Tier 1" to mean the top level--like "Tier 1 Nationals". Hingham probably does have 10-12 "Tier 1" players--surprised its not more--using the EHF nomenclature, Tier 1 being the level below "Elite". [Everywhere else that would be called Tier 2.] My bad. I should have said the Catholics are full of "Elite" level players of which Hingham and other publics have very few.

No we are on the same page. Yes, Tier 1 'National Bound' they would in the past few years have 5-6 at the U-18 level and 4-5 at the U-16 level. Now ask the coaches who or what that means and they would be lost trying to figure it out. Just not enough compared to those that recruit the better 12-13 year olds in the region.

Plus, many of the Catholics will have their lids on just a few teams for summer & fall. Publics will have kids on 6-8 different teams all playing different systems.

Depth, recruiting, coaching, working to get the kids deals.... Totally different.

When my son was an 8th grader he skated with a pretty good team. After practice a coach from a local catholic school which is kind of a hockey school took 4-5 kids aside and chatted with them about attending his school. After the chat I asked my son if he was interested and he was kind of dumbfounded by the whole thing. "Why would I go to that school just to play hockey?"