February 6, 2019 at 3:32 p.m.
Edge to receive forfeit win to begin playoffs
Lakeland co-op ineligible for tournament due to misconduct penalties
Edge to receive forfeit win to begin playoffs
The WIAA confirmed to the River News Tuesday that the Northern Edge will receive a forfeit win over the Lakeland co-op in the regional finals as Lakeland has been ruled ineligible for postseason competition due to picking up its third game disqualification penalty of the season Saturday in a non-conference game against Black River Falls. The game already is displayed as a forfeit victory for the Rhinelander/Antigo co-op on the WIAA's official tournament bracket.
The sanction is covered under Section 3 of the Hockey Tournament Procedure document on the WIAA website which states, in part, "Any school whose players, during the regular season, collectively receive a total of three or more game disqualifications over two or more games, or four game disqualifications during the same game, will be prohibited from participating in the WIAA State Tournament series. This ruling may be appealed by the school involved."
WIAA director of communications Todd Clark confirmed Lakeland was ineligible for the playoffs under this rule, which was added has been on the WIAA's books sice 1987. He said Lakeland has not appealed the ruling, nor does he anticipate Lakeland will appeal the ruling.
"Actually, it isn't a rare occurrence," Clark wrote in an email to the River News. "Teams have been removed from the tournament as recently as last year, but there have been several years where teams have been removed from the tournament."
A Lakeland Times reporter attempted to ask Lakeland coach Steve Bucklew for comment regarding the situation and was referred to the LUHS activities department. As of deadline for this edition, the LUHS activities department and activities director Phil Updike have failed to respond to multiple requests for comment by The Lakeland Times and River News into this matter.
According to box scores posted on Wisconsin Prep Hockey, Asucena Boyer received a game disqualification penalty in a Dec. 14 overtime loss for the T-Birds at Northland Pines and Isabelle Boyer received a game disqualification penalty Feb. 2 against Black River Falls.
According to Lakeland Times reporter, Jacob Friede, Lakeland received a second game disqualification penalty on goalie Anna Maulson following the Dec. 14 game against Northland Pines. Players are required to sit one game after picking up a game misconduct penalty. Neither Asucena Boyer nor Maulson played in Lakeland's next contest, which was a 7-3 win over the Northern Edge Dec. 21 in Minocqua.
Clark confrimed Wednesday that Lakeland receieved two game disqualifications in the Dec. 14 game at Northland Pines.
The benefactor to this is the Northern Edge, which received the No. 6 seed in the WIAA tournament in a coaches' seeding meeting on Sunday and was scheduled to play third-seeded Lakeland either next Thursday or Friday.
Northern Edge head coach Tom Roeser, who was unable to attend the sectional seeding meeting, was told by his co-coach Kelly LeVeque the seeding meeting went on as normal, despite the sanction looking over Lakeland's head.
"From what I hear, they just proceeded as planned, knowing there was a possible DQ involved, which was kind of surprising for me," he said. "I don't know how they weren't aware of that, because it happened prior to the seeding meeting."
The Northern Edge now receives a free pass into the sectional semifinal round where it will play the winner of next Thursday's game between second-seeded Wisconsin Valley Union and seventh-seeded Medford. The game will take place Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Wisconsin Valley Union enters the game as a heavy favorite. The Northern Edge was scheduled to play a non-conference game against the union, which was twice nixed due to snow - both Tuesday and Jan. 22 -before being canceled all together.
"It's a tough road which way we go. We've either got Medford or Valley Union, and we've just got to look at it that way," Roeser said. "Unfortunately we lost a game today that I don't know if we can make up prior to the end of the season."
Roeser said not seeing WVU prior to a potential playoff matchup is not necessarily a detriment.
"The one thing we do have going for us - and I talk like that because we have a short bench with two injuries - is we are fortunate enough to have kept our goaltender healthy and a lot can happen when you have a goalie like that," he said.
The Northern Edge was scheduled to host Lakeland at the Rhinelander Ice Arena on Monday, but that game was postponed due to the ice storm that swept through the area. The game has been rescheduled for this coming Monday and will be Lakeland's last game of the regular season. Roeser said he expects Lakeland to treat the contest like a playoff game.
"I'm sure they're probably going to be a little disgruntled. They already play physical hockey. It will good for us to see," he said. "I think they may try to take it out on us, but, like I said, we don't have control over that. Every team we play we've got to treat the same and just go out, work hard and put pucks on net and play really good in the defensive zone."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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