By Chris Judd, News Staff

Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna suspended Northeastern men’s hockey coach Jim Madigan for public criticism of officials on Thurday. It will be a one game suspension that will take effect for the first Northeastern NCAA game next season. The incident happened on Sunday, Mar. 16 after Northeastern lost game three of its Hockey Easy playoff series against University of New Hampshire.

“Using the media to criticize an official’s decision is contrary to league policy and is inherently unfair to the officials who work hard for college hockey each and every night,” Bertagna said in the conference’s official release. “Hockey East and Northeastern University expect better from our head coaches and Jim has acknowledged his error in this situation.”

Madigan’s post game comments were a reaction to what happened approximately eight minutes into the third period of the team’s final game this season. Freshman forward Mike Szmatula fired a shot while the Huskies were down 4-3. Sophomore forward Mike McMurtry deflected the puck into the net, but there was dispute on whether he touched the puck with a high stick. The official on the ice called it no goal and the play was reviewed, but the officials didn’t find evidence to overturn it. The Huskies eventually lost that game 5-4.

In a press conference following the game, Madigan said that he thought the referees officiating were the best in the league, but he did not see how it was called a no-goal.

“I think we have the best official in my mind doing the game, Tim Benedetto,” Madigan said after the game. “I’ve known him for a long time and I think he’s the best official in Hockey East. I don’t know between what happened down here and upstairs. The trajectory, it’s a little like forensics, the trajectory of the puck, there’s no way it could touch our guy on the stick … There’s no way when you saw the tape and you freeze frame it, I don’t know how it was missed. It’s a bad miss at a critical point in the game.”