Not happy with officiating

I’ve been a supporter of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles hockey team in good days and bad over the past 19 years.

In the early days, the refereeing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League could be brutal. I recall especially the 2006-07 series against Val d’Or when future NHLers Kris Letang and Brad Marchand played against us. We should have won that series, but lost in seven games largely because of the refereeing in Val d’Or.

In fact, I recall one of our officials saying that it would be hard to win the last two games in that town. He didn’t spell it out, but refereeing was a large factor.

That team literally tackled us all over the ice in the seventh game and the referees performed so badly that they were accused by some of making certain that a Quebec team advanced.

Over the years, the quality of refereeing has improved but on Saturday, in a game in which the Eagles completely dominated the opposition en route to a 5-2 win and a 46- 16 shots- on- goal advantage, it seemed to me that the referees did their utmost to assist the opposition to get back in a game.

One incident that supports this was a blatant holding infraction against our player in front of the Val d’Or net in the third period that was ignored.

The Eagles have superior personnel, but the opposing team is well coached and a worthy opponent. However, when an entire crowd calls into question the performance of the referees, obviously skill has been trumped by poor judgment, or possibly skullduggery.

LeRoy Peach

Port Morien