Me performing a faceoff in an FHL game on March 10, 2017 (Berlin at Watertown)
When I first started officiating ice hockey 22 years ago, I made myself a promise. When I am no longer having fun, I must quit. I have seen this coming for a year or two, but I am no longer giddy when I am officiating a game, so I decided that this year’s College Hockey Federation (CHF) national championships would be the end of my career.
I had three goals when I first started as an official:
- Work a college ice hockey game
- Work a junior-level game
- Work a Penn State game
I conquered all three of those goals rather quickly, and I advanced up the ranks to pro hockey where I worked for eleven years.
My next goal was to work the national championships at some level. In 2019, I was selected to officiate the USA Hockey U14 Tier II Nationals at Notre Dame. I worked a bunch of round-robin games and was selected to officiate a quarter-final game That was a good experience and I had all intentions of retiring after that tournament. A couple of months later, one of my college assignors said that he was asked to send 2 crews to the 2020 CHF national championships in Philadelphia. I pondered this and decided to chance it and keep reffing. Between Notre Dame and Philadelphia, I decided that my last goal would be to officiate a national championship game where the winner was obviously the national champion and the loser had a lot of crushed dreams. For the 2020 nationals, I was selected to work the playoffs, but that was when COVID was first kicking up. The NCAA pulled the plug right after the round-robin and the playoffs were canceled.
The following year (2021), I was again selected to referee the USA Hockey U14 Tier II National Championships, this time in Dallas, TX. The CHF nationals were canceled due to COVID. While in Dallas, I shined. I was the referee for a quarter-final game AND was a linesman for one of the national semi-final games. However, I fell short of the national championship game. I got to the big dance for the third time but did not make the final dance.
I was losing my drive to officiate. It was becoming a burden, so I decided that the 2021-2022 season would be my last year, and I would have to take whatever I got. My college assignor recommended me and I was again selected to work the 2022 CHF Nationals in Philadelphia. I did not tell very many people that this tournament was my final tournament as an ice hockey official.
I took the entire week from work (Thursday to the following Wednesday) for this tilt. The league was putting up the officials, but I got my own room where I could be alone and do what I wanted to do.
On Thursday, I made a pretty uneventful drive to my hotel in King of Prussia The hotel was about 20-25 minutes away from Ice Line where the games were being played. I wanted it that way so I did not have to deal with players or other referees.
The dress code was business casual, but I wanted to make an impression. I will take any advantage that I can get and I wore a suit and jacket for every game.
On Friday, my first assignment was as a linesman at 4:15 pm. It pitted Salisbury University vs the University of Tampa. The game was very lopsided, and Tampa won 11-2. The next game was right after that at 7:15 pm, for which I was a referee. This game was between Alvernia University and Florida Atlantic University. Unfortunately, this game was not competitive either, with Florida winning 13-3.
Back at the hotel after the game, I crossed paths with two people who were wearing University of Alabama clothing. I asked them if they were here for the CHF nationals. They confirmed that they were and I told them that I was working their game against New Hampshire on Sunday. I wished them all the luck in the tournament.
Saturday came, and my first gig was as a linesman at 3:15 pm and featured Penn State – Harrisburg vs St. Bonaventure. St. Bonaventure won this one 9-1. I was the referee for my second game at 6:15 which had Hofstra vs Ramapo College. I wish I could say that this game was competitive, but Ramapo won 10-0. Up to this point, I have had four games and all four have been lopsided.
Sunday came, and this would be the last day of the round-robin portion of the tournament. Officials hate this situation because teams with nothing to lose often misbehave, create havoc, and make for a difficult game. My first tilt was between Niagara University and Fordham University. Niagara dominated the game and during the third period, one of the Fordham players took exception to something that I did not call and hurled a slur at me. I assessed a ten-minute misconduct for his little tirade. While serving his penalty, he hurled the same slur against me while play was live. I stopped the game, assessed a game misconduct, and threw him out. On his way out, he again badgered me and yelled, “I am going to make more money than you.” Really dude? Is that the best you can do? Oh, and you have no idea what I do. Maybe you will, but really, WHO CARES? This is yet another example of a team that has not played well (Fordham was 0-3 after this game) that incites mischief (although admittedly, this was not really bad). Niagara won that game 8-0. The second grudge match had the University of Alabama vs the University of New Hampshire. Alabama was 2-0 and New Hampshire was 0-2. This was yet another game that meant nothing for New Hampshire. If Alabama won, they move on to elimination play. This game was rather uneventful (thank goodness – but I have never really had any problems with New Hampshire) and Alabama won 8-2. After round-robin play, the closest game that I had was a 6 goal differential. Every game was rather lopsided.
I kept my fingers crossed for a playoff assignment. Soon, I got the message that I had a new assignment! I logged in and to my surprise, I had TWO quarter-final games! I figured that they would use one crew for each game because they wanted everybody to be fresh, so getting a second game was a huge bonus! I was a linesman for both games, but that was good for me. I spent 11 years as a linesman in the professional leagues, so I am a much better linesman than I am a referee.
The first game was at 11 am and featured Ramapo College vs Christopher Newport University. I could only HOPE that now that we were in the playoffs, these games would be much better. During warmup, I got wind that the Christopher Newport goalie had injured himself the night before. Ramapo would surely seize the opportunity and pepper him with all kinds of shots. This was the case and Ramapo ended up winning 9-2. Geesh, I still have not had a game that has been closer than a six-goal differential.
The second quarter-final game featured two southern teams – South Carolina vs Georgia Tech. The fans were out in droves. I looked into the crowd and saw a South Carolina fan wearing a shirt that read “Cock Hockey”. I thought that was amusing and laughed under my breath. This game was a bit more competitive, but the final score was still 6-2 with the South Carolina Gamecocks being the victor.
We received an email that they would release the semi-final and finals assignments later that afternoon. My fingers were crossed. If I got nothing, then I would return home and go back to work a day early. After a bit of time, I received a text, “Please confirm your game assignments”. WOO! After logging in, I saw that I was a linesman for one of the semi-final games and the referee for the consolation game. This news was bittersweet. I did not get a national championship game, but I did get the 3rd place/consolation game. Only 8 officials made it that far, and I was one of them, so really, how disappointed could I really be?
On Tuesday, I would be the linesman for the Ramapo vs University of Binghamton semi-final game. I work Ramapo several times during the regular season, and this would be my third game with them this tournament. The coach and I know each other and we are very cordial. He asked me why I was not the referee, and I simply told him that I did not make those decisions, but was glad to still be part of the officials that had assignments. I also told him that I had the consolation game tomorrow and that I hoped that I did NOT have to referee him in that game. He laughed and said that he did not want to see me tomorrow either (no offense taken 🙂 ) Lastly, I was working the game with Laura White (who was in one of the referee spots). If you do not know who Laura White is, click her name (TLDR: She is one of several females being groomed by the NHL to be one the first female referees).
As the game got underway, the first thing I noticed about Laura was her skating ability. OMG – she is such a GREAT skater. She was 10 times better than me. Her ability to manage the game was impeccable and her calls were perfect. I wished that this was not my only game ever with her. I could definitely learn a lot from her. Back to the game – this one was VERY good. It was back and forth, with both teams evenly matched. Finally – a competitive game! Binghamton was up 2-1 after the first and the score was tied 3-3 after the second. The third period saw each team score one goal and we reached the end of regulation tied at 4. Off to overtime we go! At one point, there was a potential icing call. As the back linesman, I initiated the potential icing. There are a lot of things that you can do that can take you from a GOOD linesman to a GREAT linesman. One of them is to help back up the referee. In icing situations where you are not permitted to change players, you can watch who is on the ice when the puck is shot and serve as a backup to the referee. That way if the back referee gets distracted with on-ice activities, you can tell him/her who was on the ice, and the crew looks like they know what they are doing. As this puck was shot, I took an inventory of players and watched anybody who was close to the bench to ensure that they did not try to illegally change. While I was doing that, Tom called a cross-checking penalty on one of the Ramapo players. There was dissent among the Ramapo bench because typically for a penalty to be called in overtime, somebody should be going to the hospital (side note: This is the old-fashioned way of thinking. Nowadays, a penalty is a penalty, regardless of what period it is or whatever the state of the game is. However, many officials still will only call the most egregious penalties in overtime.) I honestly did not see the infraction because I was busy with my icing duties, but Tom was adamant that it was a penalty. From what I had seen, Tom was a very competent referee and he has worked some pretty high-level hockey, so I had no reason to think that it was NOT a penalty. Well, as fate would have it, Binghamton scored on the ensuing power play to catapult them into the finals.
As a celebration for making it this far, I went to the Valley Forge Casino which was about a mile from my hotel. I got there and took a lap around. There were poker tables, but the blackjack tables had fairly good rules for the player (dealer stands on any 17, 3:2 blackjack payout, surrender, and you can split aces 3 times total). I sat down, hit a good run of cards, and ended up winning about $500 over the course of 3 hours. That was a good supplement to my game fees! I could have played into the wee hours of the morning, but I needed to be fresh for my final game tomorrow.
Morning came, I got up, had breakfast, and made my way to the rink for my final game. I was a little sad, but I had been preparing for this moment for a couple of years now. I just wanted to have a fun skate. James Witherite texted me and said that he got wind that this was my final game. He asked if I would like him to say something about that in the pre-game. I told him that I did not want that because the game was about the players, not me. This was a nice gesture though, and thank you James for that!
I arrived at the rink and was greeted by the South Carolina coach. Unfortunately, they lost to Babson yesterday and they were in the consolation game against Ramapo. He asked me if they HAD to play this game and that nobody wanted to. They had a 10-hour drive home and wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. I referred him to Jay, the commissioner, to plead his case. Jay made the decision that the game would be played. We went to the ice with 39:00 in the clock for warmups. Both coaches were there and said that they were NOT taking the ice for warmups, that they would come out at 10:00 left on the clock, and would go right into the game after that (instead of making ice). Both teams wanted to get this game over with. Jay reluctantly agreed, and we went back to the referee’s dressing room.
When the game started, it was obvious that the two teams had an informal “no-check” policy. Both teams were bruised and banged up from playing 5 games in 5 days. They wanted the game to be over as quickly as possible. In the end, Ramapo won 7-4 in a very uneventful game.
Referee fighting player
This brings a close to my officiating career:
- 22 years as an ice hockey official
- 15 years working the junior circuit
- 20 years as a college referee
- 11 years as a professional linesman (I can’t tell you how many hundreds of fights I have broken up 🙂 )
- TOO MANY state championships and regional tournaments to count
- 2 Federal Professional Hockey league semi-finals
- 1 Federal Professional Hockey league finals
- Six NCAA Division 2 regional championships
- Four national championships (2 youth and 2 college)
All in all, this was a pretty successful career! I made some good friends along the way, and I will miss it dearly, but it is time to move on.