North Dakota's Matt Frattin Suspended 1 Game

The infamous drunk lawn mower throwing, legally drunk driving forward from the University of North Dakota has been suspended by the WCHA for a game for a hit Sunday night on Minnesota defenseman Kevin Wehrs.

I watched the game live and at the time didn't see anything that was worthy of a suspension. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see a replay because the TV feed cut out on FCS. I thought, and still do, that it was probably worthy of a 2:00 minute charging penalty.

Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Elliott Scholossman has some screen shots of the hit. It's hard to use this as conclusive evidence so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Although to me it looks like the puck is on Wehrs stick, Frattin's arms are down, and he's on the ice when he makes contact.

I have yet to see evidence that he makes contact with Wehrs head. If he did, that changes my opinion completely. As it stands, North Dakota may have gotten screwed. Frattin will miss North Dakota's quarter-final game at the Final Five on Thursday vs Minnesota-Duluth.

Drunk Driving Is Legal In North Dakota

Ok, let me preface this blog post to say that I couldn't be less shocked with this outcome. With that said...

North Dakota junior forward Matt Frattin was found not guilty of driving under the influence on Tuesday. Somehow (eyeroll), a jury of six Grand Forks County residents decided that the North Dakota hockey player on trial was innocent.

From the Grand Forks Herald, "Campus police pulled over Frattin, a junior forward, in the early morning hours of Aug. 19. According to police, Lt. Tracy Meidinger smelled alcohol on Frattin’s breath and a test at the station put his blood-alcohol level at .12 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent."

I'll admit, I'm far from the smartest person in the world, but what possible debate would someone have in this scenario? This is like the most slam dunk guilty case I've ever heard of. He was pulled over, was taken in for a bac test, and FAILED the test. This couldn't be more black and white.

So basically, one of two things happened here. Either A, Frattin did a voodoo dance and the late Johnny Cochran arose from the dead and won an OJ like case on his behalf, or there were (hold on, this is shocking) some North Dakota hockey fans on the jury. Either way, there is something extremely fishy going on here.