Re: body checking in girls hockey?

Dice - I agree that the OWHA must have more supervisors for officials at the rinks but I'm not sure that that will solve the problem.

As you said, the rules that govern hits from behind/hits to the head are Hockey Canada rules. The refs in girls hockey are very well aware of these rules and virtually all (if not all) of them referee in boys hockey as well as girls and pay the crossover fee to become OWHA certified, so they should know very well the criteria of what constitutes a penalty in these situations.

My D has played hockey for many years as has my son and the biggest difference I see in many refs (please note I did NOT say ALL refs) in girls hockey is that they seem to look at it as "it's just girls hockey". The same ref doesn't seem to have the same urgency or alertness when doing a girls game over a boys game. In other words - they just don't seem to care as much.

This leads to not paying close enough attention to the game and, perhaps, underplaying in their mind the severity of an injury because "it's just girl's hockey."

Again - I'm not saying this is every official (or even most officials) but having had a chance to compare the two it's an observation that I'm not alone in making.

And don't even get me started about the officiating in girl's high school hockey!!