Icing The Pucker: Female Referee Keeps Her Cool

RENO, Nev. - As is the practice, the hockey officials waited until the players dropped to the ice before rushing in to break up the fight.

One grabbed the player on top of the two-man pile, and the other, Heather McDaniel, went for the one on the bottom.

But when she started to break up the fight, the player . . . kissed her.

"I was stunned," McDaniel said. "My partner was livid the guy did that to me. I thought it was kind of funny. I had a hard time not laughing."

It was an incident that probably could occur only to McDaniel, the only female official in professional hockey. A seven-year veteran, she is working as a referee for the West Coast and Central hockey leagues.

The way McDaniel handled the kissing incident showed she does not become easily deterred by jumping into a man's domain.

"He was already kicked out of the game," she said of the player with the active lips. "My partner thought I should've given him a gross misconduct and suspended him for 30 days. I could've. There's a point where you really have to assess why people do things. He wouldn't have gained more respect for me if I had given him a game misconduct."

One man became so angry at her during a men's recreation-league game that he warned her not to be alone in the rink parking lot or he would rape and kill her. "I said if I had my choice, I'd rather he kill me first," she said. "He didn't like that at all."

Most of her work still comes in the recreation leagues, with about 10 games a week. Then there is the occasional WCHL or CHL assignment.

McDaniel was the referee Jan. 16 in the Reno Renegades' 5-4 victory over the Fresno Falcons.

"I don't imagine, unless you're an awfully good official, you're going to get many games your first year," WCHL Commissioner Mike Meyers said. "You get three to five games and a long look."

The Renegades' game was the third she has officiated in the inaugural WCHL season. She also has worked three CHL games this season, but joined that league last year.

Meyers said the 5-5, 135-pound McDaniel has technical improvements to make before receiving regular assignments, but otherwise was complimentary.

"Right now, she looks promising," he said.

McDaniel said she's not an official for the publicity, although she received five calls a week last year from media outlets throughout the country and Canada.

She started as a figure skater and then began playing hockey because her sister was her high school's starting goaltender. But she wound up breaking three ribs, and competitive sports turned into a quick memory.

So at age 17, she began putting on black-and-white striped shirts.

"I was just looking for a nice way to earn extra money and stay on the ice," McDaniel said. "The more I did it, I became addicted to it."

McDaniel has learned to balance the good with the bad.

"One day, my sister was at a game, and a coach came up and said I was the best referee he had ever seen," she said. "My sister said, `Doesn't that feel great?' It can, but if I take his compliment this week, I have to take his insult next week. I'd rather never take anything."

She knows she is watched more closely than most referees.

"She's under a microscope," Renegade forward Ed Courtenay said after the game in Reno. "Some of the calls she shouldn't have called, but that's no different from the rest of the league."

Players often look for a point of attack with an official. In McDaniel's case, the target is obvious from the moment she enters the ice, with her reddish ponytail and no signs of 5 o'clock shadow.

She's been told by players she has a nice posterior in hopes it will offend her and throw off her focus.

Not losing her cool has gained McDaniel respect.

"Sometimes (players) try to intimidate me, and they know they're not going to intimidate me," she said.

"They also know I take my job seriously, but I don't take myself too seriously. When referees take themselves too seriously, that's when they get in trouble."