Hockey Craziness!

SO I haven't been blogging lately... but now that hockey season is tapering off, I have full intentions of updating my blog with all the exciting events in my life of late ;)

The most recent of which, blew my mind.

The week of spring break for the kids is the week that all the Provincial Championships take place for BC. As part of the high performance program for officials, there were 9 of us sent to Nelson for the Midget AAA female Provincials. This is the first year that the league has been in place, and also the first year that the Midget Nationals are taking place. They are being hosted in Calgary. That means that the girls aren't just playing for pride, but also for the opportunity to compete with the other teams who come out of their province as #1. In fact, it was a year of a lot of firsts. This is also the first time that Hockey BC has approved all of the female officials to be sent in from out of town. That means travel costs paid, hotels paid, per diems paid, and then our game fees as well. It adds up, but I think it delivered the highest level of officiating that the teams could've hoped for. Not gonna lie, we were sharp.

The ride up was a bit of an episode. I left at 6:30 am to be in nanaimo by 8 am to meet Jim (officer at large for the tournament) and Jamie (a fellow official). Jacqui, who is also from the island, had to drop her kids off in Vernon... so she caught 1 ferry ahead of us and then was supposed to meet up with us in Penticton on our way through. Unfortunately, her son got an infection in his mouth and ended up in the Emergency room in Kelowna for 5 hours. That created a bit of a delay. The 3 of us ended up carrying on to Nelson and arrived at 10 pm... while Jacqui was 2 hours behind and joined us when she got there. The hotel was nice, and we didn't have games until Sunday, so the travel day wasn't too big of a deal.

Saturday flew by, we checked out Nelson, I bought a kewl hat, and also the book Twilight ;) We had our first meeting to discuss rules, talk about our role during the week, and determine assignments for the following day. Everyone else arrived and we moved to our respective rooms. Jacqui and I were on the first floor, on an end suite... it was awesome. It was Lakefront, with lots of windows, our own entrance and parking stall right in front. We didn't expect this when we were told we were heading to Nelson!

Day 1 went by without incident...The facility itself was awesome. New, bright, spacious. It was a beautiful rink! Each night we had a meeting to talk about assignments for the next day. Once we got into the games, we got progressively more exhausted. We were tired from exercise, and also tired from lack of sleep due to a tough schedule.

On one of the nights, when we had the late game, the 3 on ice officials and myself (who was standby) needed to get food. We got in jacqui's car, exhausted, and went to the front doors to wait for Nat. She walked into the lobby and didn't see any of us... so Jacqui started honking repeatedly. Nat still didn't hear, but the city cop (who would've thought that Nelson would have city cops...) that just drove by heard us. He did a U turn and came back over, stopped beside our car and rolled down his window. I told the girls to let me talk to him... so jacqui rolled down her window, and so did I in the back seat. He asked us if we were the ones honking, so I said yes, we were honking to get your attention! We are very hungry and need to know what is open at this hour. He laughed and told us to follow him. That is how we discovered Finleys (and Brent) and the best chicken ceasar wraps ever! That was one of 2 experiences with the cops during our visit.

Unfortunately Jamie got hurt during a game while I was on standby. There was a chiropractor there, so he was able to fix her back. That was a relief. I got dressed and finished her game for her. We met the Referee in Chief (RIC) from Nelson named Rick. He owned the concession stand in the arena. He was amazing!!! We were VERY well taken care of, and he also evaluated us at our request. We love you Rick! Aside from that, it was tough to find good food.. when you are starving, only have so much time, and only a couple of us had vehicles. Nelson has a very diverse population.

So the final day arrives, and we have a meeting at 4:45 pm to find out who officiates the championship game, which is happening at 7:30 pm that night. Not a lot of notice, but it is supposed to be performance based, so we never find out until shortly before. After some very, very interesting events that I won't cover here, it turns out that I get selected to ref the final game down the middle, with a linesman from vancouver and a linesman from Dawson Creek (where my mom was born!). The teams competing were the Vancouver Fusion vs the Kootenay Wildcats, who were the home team.

We got told at 7 pm that the warm up would be starting at 7:20, not 7:30. That put us in a bit of a rush, and we left the scoresheet in the dressing room - lol. Judy ran and got it for me before the game started. Then, when they tried to play the anthem, the volume wouldn't work for the stereo or the microphone. Instead, the entire stadium stood together and just sang it. It was magical - it sends shivers down my spine on a regular day, nevermind everyone including the players singing in unison. OH Canada!

I normally don't call a lot of penalties... but the girls were very excited about the game and playing aggressively. I had to call a 5 minute major for boarding in the first period on a Kootenay player. The arena was so loud the entire time, that I could barely hear myself yelling, or my linesman's whistles. I've never heard such a thing at a girls game. Those small town fans sure get into it. There were people there with huge airhorns running around the rink, painted faces, wearing wigs and jersey's from their respective teams. It was good to see.

The first period had two 5 on 3's, one for each team, but ended 0-0. In the 2nd period, white (Kootenay) got momentum... which forced the Fusion to take penalties. That period ended 2-1 Kootenay.

In the 3rd, black cleaned up their game. They came out wanting to win. I made 2 questionable calls.... one on white, and nothing came of it. One on black, which black made the best of by scoring a short-handed goal and tying the game at 2.

The last 8 minutes of the third period was unbelievable. The crowd was so loud, booing any call I made on white and screaming over anything that I didn't call on black. That rink turned into an absolute zoo. I had to call a boarding penalty on white for smashing a kid into the boards. They were both going for the puck at full speed, but perpendicular to each other. Unfortunately, even though I support going hard for the puck, you have to take into consideration where the boards are when you are colliding with another player. Shortly after that, there was an offside call at the black line... my linesman blew her whistle very loud, and at least 1 second after, the white player took a slapshot that hit the black goalie. I had to call unsportsmanlike conduct. It isn't something I ever want to call at the end of a game - but I heard the whistle, and so did the other 9 players on the ice who had relaxed at the sound.

Black ended up scoring with about 3 minutes left in the game. The crowd got continually more displeased and loud all the way until the end. Not only was the crowd bad, but the scorekeepers were Kootenay fans. They weren't filling out the scoresheet properly, or looking at me when I signalled a penalty. During the timeouts, they would not time them or push the buzzer. It was bad. Black took a penalty with 30 seconds left... white pulled their goale, and played 6 on 4. They had four good scoring chances and couldn't put the puck in the net. It ended 3-2 Fusion.

Then it turned into a disaster. A couple of the white players came and shook my hand including their head coach...the rest just came over to say a lot of things to me that I wouldn't repeat. After the handshake with all the black players, I turned to get the scoresheet.. and some mother, wearing a Wildcats jersey was coming onto the ice through the penalty box, waving a camera at me, screaming that I just lost them the championship game, blah blah blah. My linesman had to throw her back into the penalty box and shut the gate lol. Shortly after this, I went to leave the ice with my linesman. There were fans hanging all over the glass screaming at me, including over the tunnel were I needed to go to get to the dressing room. After we got in there, some angry girl and her boyfriend found our refs room (which was actually a dressing room because we needed room for 9 officials) and came in. At that point, Jamie became my personal bodyguard. She escorted those fans out of the arena and threatened to call the cops. I was in the dressing room, but apparently the tunnel outside my room was lined with angry fans waiting for me to come out. The officials who were there were acting as security on the outside.

45 minutes later, I sent someone to find out from the rink guy, if there was a back door we could get out. Thankfully there was, and the fans had disappeared from the tunnel. We get to the outside, only to see commotion going on in the parking lot. There is a guy yelling and approaching a girl... then we realize its one of our refs! I guess she was carrying her ref bag to the car, and he figured that she was me... so he started verbally attacking her. Her name was Teresa. Jamie heard all the yelling, and ran over there telling the guy to beat it. Right then, 6 other men hear this and start walking towards the girls, joining in on the yelling. Jim went out there... and then these 2 guys come running out of the arena who had just been told of what was going on. I recognized them when they came running over to me to ask if everything was okay... they were the Vancouver Fusion coaches, who also happen to be RCMP. I was watching everything from the sidelines, all the other officials protected me well from the public. Thanks guys ;)

Turned out that the 2 rcmp got us to our vehicles, made sure we had everything, and chased those other guys off so we could get out with our vehicles unharmed. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. The city cops arrived shortly after in their cruisers and dealt with the fans.

After things calmed down, we were invited back to Finleys. Rick and Brent had a little gathering set up for us... we ate and drank all night for free. They were incredible hosts, and Brent is a pretty wicked guy all around. That ended our time in Nelson. We left the next morning at 6:45 am and I made the journey back to Vancouver. I had to ref another hockey tournament this weekend, but it was much less eventful than the previous. Thank goodness!

More to come on my recent adventures ;)