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Ref Memories

   As an official, you strive to become better at your game and learn from your peers. I went to the Brandon Wheat King games to watch the officials positioning and the calls they made, or missed, and tried to include their style of officiating into my game. 

     I have always thought there was one particular call in a game that would make or break your game. As officials we would talk about it in the dressing room. What happens if you miss that call, how are you going to get control of the game? This was especially true in a rugged game that was chippy with lots of pushing and shoving and maybe even fighting. What if you just did not see it? That can happen!

    I was at a Brandon Wheat Kings game in March of 1979. The Wheat Kings had only lost 4 games so far that season and this would be their fifth and final loss in the regular season. This team set all kinds of records that still stand today in Major Junior Hockey!

     A Saskatoon Blade player clipped Brian Propp with a high stick. Brian Propp was nicked and had some blood on his chin. No call was made! I think the referee just did not see it. In my mind I can still see the play in question. My first thought was his positioning. These were the days when there was one referee and two linesmen. So, Brian Propp gets high sticked, is cut, no penalty! Earlier in the game the Saskatoon Blades had a player hurt from blocking a shot, and had left the game and did not return.

    At the first stoppage of play after Brian Propp was cut, the Wheat kings made a line change. Five players came off the Brandon Wheat King bench led by Brad Kempthorne who was from Boissevain. He came onto the ice right toward the Saskatoon players’ bench and they were not happy their star forward had got injured. The Brandon players went right to the Saskatoon bench and basically just hauled that Blade player on to the ice. Of course, the benches were emptied and there was a full scale brawl! There were fights everywhere!

     As an official, all you can do is try to make sure no one is getting seriously injured, that would be the first fight you intervene in.

     Brian Propp, who basically got a bandage on the cut came back out on the ice and skated around the fisticuffs, looking for the culprit who had high sticked him. Brian eventually found him and while a teammate had the player tied up, Propp got a few free shots in and finished him off quickly.

    When the smoke cleared there were four Saskatoon players laying on the ice, injured. The rest of the players on both sides had withdrawn to their benches.

    Ken Federko who is the brother of St.Louis Blues star player, Bernie Federko, and was Saskatoon's best player lay on the ice for quite some time. When they got him up to escort him to the dressing room it was very apparent he probably was not sure where he was.

    This was a real eye opener for me. Things happen in a hurry out there. There was no time for the linesmen to say to the referee, there was a high sticking major penalty, where they could give their version of to the referee, thus a 5 minute penalty issued to the Saskatoon Blade player. 

    My lesson, always expect the unexpected and hope you were never involved in one of those games. It was a real tough situation for any officials to be in.

    Saskatoon won that game, but did not win the war. The two teams met in the Eastern Division Final of the Western Hockey Playoffs. The Brandon Wheat Kings defeated them in four straight games. The Brandon Wheat Kings went to the Memorial cup that season, but lost 2-1 to the Peterborough Petes in overtime. Some players you may recall that were playing for Brandon that year were Brad McCrimmon, Brian Propp, Ray Allison, Laurie Boschman and Oak River native, Wes Coulson!