Glacier Ice Rink — Attraction in Missoula

This rink brings shame to the USA hockey organization. Before hosting anymore recreational men's league no check tournaments or games, especially those which bring teams who travel from afar to play in they need to evaluate and retrain or replace MANY staff members. Keep in mind I am only a spectator, a hockey fan writing this review. Over one weekend, I watched several refs miss so many obvious calls, from off sides, checks of all sorts, trips, spearing, and hooks. I watched a home town player cross check a visiting teams player (who I know can run his mouth at times but what player doesn't?) into the boards multiple times in the corner as the play moved a cross the ice. Still blind to this the tussle between the two players had now moved towards the benches to a point where the visiting player was pinned on the ice while the hometown player (gloves off on the ice) had already connected a few hits to the visiting player. The refs finally started to take action. Hometown boy received a 5 minute penalty for roughing. Why was he not ejected for this? One particular referees name was Golie who we learned should be a level one ref at best after taking another ref clinic or two. Moving on to the next day.

Watching a game between the same visiting team and another hometown team, once again numerous calls were missed and bogus calls were made. During the 2nd period the visiting center noticed a hometown player running the visiting goalie, the center pushed him away. Hometown boy in return pushed the center man into the net knocking the post off. Where was the call there? As the center was pushed into the net he pushed his opponents head down. When hometown player tried to rebalance he threw his head back and his helmet came off and hit the ice. At that time the visiting center skated backwards away from the player with his hands in the air gloves on. The visiting player was immediately ejected for fighting and booted from the rest of the tournament. He did not play the next two games.

The hometown boy who whooped up on the visiting player with his gloves off the night before was never ejected and allowed to play the rest of the weekend. This seems unjust to me.

Before wasting your money entering a Missoula tournament and paying for travel accommodations ask yourself this, "Does my team want to play a tournament with extremely under qualified, extraordinary (blind) hometown referees that don't know their positioning half of the time?"

These are not the only games I watched during said tourney. I also watched horrible refereeing during hometown vs. hometown teams. As a hockey fan, I want to see a fairly called game every game and consistency in refereeing throughout a tournament.

WHERE IS YOUR PRIDE...

I've enjoyed watching Missoula Mauler and Junior Bruin junior hockey games here at the Glacier Ice Rink for a number of years now, and I can vividly remember back in the 80's when we didn't even have Junior Hockey here in Missoula, but I continue to struggle mightily with "why it is" that a city the size of Missoula (population over 70,000!), can't seem to offer a consistently stable junior hockey experience, with a progressive, decent quality ice arena?

By example, 'why is it' that multiple junior hockey teams have come and gone in Missoula now over the years, while the Glacier Ice Rink continues to be rather run-down and second-rate, yet a much-much smaller town like (say) Cody, Wyoming (population barely 9,000), has a deluxe, first-rate (Riley) arena and highly competitive junior hockey team that make Missoula's look silly? Why is that?? I respectfully submit that there are some serious questions that need to be answered about Missoula and its history, and the stuffy, age-old vanguard that are running the finances and business interests in this town.

Just my 2-cents.

GO...

Great place for younger children, older youth find it a bit dated and bring a jacket cause it's cold!

Other than out growing its capacity (inside and out), it has a great small town feel that sadly will need updating in the sooner, not later category.

Locker rooms made out of plywood, not enough parking, seating capacity, and issues with the outdoor rink regularly seem like a normal occurrence in a forgotten...