You make the call

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

Here's a hypothetical situation that could occur in an amateur hockey game. OK, it actually did happen. In your opinion, was the ref out to lunch or does he make the right call?

Team A leads Team B by one goal with 38 seconds remaining in the game. The puck is dropped in Team A's zone. Team B has the goaltender on the bench. The timekeeper forgets to start the clock. It's unclear how much time may have elapsed before the clock starts. At the next whistle with 13 seconds remaining, the referee instructs the timekeeper to reset the clock to 3 seconds. The referee does not consult with the timekeeper to determine how much time may have elapsed. The ref even admits he doesn't know how long the clock was stopped, but insists it must have been at least 10 seconds.

The timekeeper in this league is paid for his/her time and not associated with either team. The referee is not carrying a stopwatch.

[transplant99]

Not much you can do actually...at that point it's at the referees discretion.

Without seeing what happened, its hard to argue with his decision.

[FireFly]

Well the ref should have consulted the timekeeper before making the call. If it is unclear how much time has elapsed, and I was the ref, I would have reset the clock to 38 seconds remaining and replayed the last shift. But even that's not fair as that gives the other team more chances to score. Because if Team B had scored to tie the game, then what do you reset the clock to?

[calculoso]

I think the ref should have consulted the timekeeper and both benches to get some sort of idea as to how much time had passed. If he/she didn't know and neither team knew, and the timekeeper didn't know, I'd have just kept that amount of time on there. If it was deemed to be "more than 10 seconds", his/her decision would have been correct.