Anyone seen the refs?

It's not always the ref who has to make the call. Sometimes, it's the host team manager.
With all the scheduling and communication that has to go on to organize minor hockey games, it shouldn't be a surprise that sometimes things go wrong. Could be a double booking of ice. Could be a team heading to the wrong arena. Or arriving at the wrong time.
But perhaps most annoying of all are the games, fortunately rare, when referees don't show up.
That's what happened tonight at London's Western Fair Sports Centre when the elite Junior Knights Gold team, the league leaders, tried to line up against our West London Hawks.
It became obvious something was amiss when the three minute warmup dragged on a bit longer than usual.
No one wearing stripes was anywhere to be found. Not on the ice. Not in the room. Not racing down the corridor.
Home team Junior Knights officials were calling every number at their disposal, but to no avail. A half hour after the game was supposed to start, the teams gave up.
What's supposed to happen is the home team manager is to check the referee's room 15 minutes before game time - and if it's empty call an emergency assigner's number.
In reality, few managers remember to do so.
In other arenas, there are referees working other games who might be corralled. But on this night at the four-pad complex, there was a Jr. B game on one pad, a practice on another and a kids sledge hockey practice (really cool) on another.
The annoyance factor, especially on a school night, was high but it could've been worse. At least it didn't involve a team driving an hour or more to play a game. Nor did anyone have to cope with a snowstorm.
But we did hustle to be there and plan our evenings around the game.
More annoyance might yet surface. Ice time in London is in such demand that it may be difficult to get a two hour block of time to accommodate a rescheduled game.
Since every kid's family pays about $20 per game to play, everyone certainly wants to play it instead of having a cancellation or forfeit.