The Ice Bears can’t light the lamp without a little help from Kim House.
"My main job is to see if the puck goes in the net," said House, a volunteer goal judge at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.
He’s a retired firefighter from Indianapolis. There, he started working with the local minor league hockey club as an off-ice official. He did it for 25 years.
Retirement included a move to Knoxville to be closer to his wife's children. Now he volunteers on winter nights as a goal judge at the Coliseum.
"Your requirement is, if it goes in the net you have to turn the light on immediately," House said. "You can’t hesitate on it and you don’t turn it on when it doesn't go in."
House sits in a folding chair on an elevated box directly behind the net on the south side of the ice. When the puck is in the opposite end, he watches the game, but once it crosses center ice, House focuses in on the net.
"I try not to pay attention to the puck, you don’t want to anticipate because you’ll give a false light then," House said.
A quick flip of a simple switch lights the lamp.
False lights happen sometimes and usually involve a clarification with the referee. However, sometimes House helps out the ref, lighting the lamp for a goal that the official missed.
“It’s got a little bit of tension, you want to do the right job no matter which team is in the net,” House said.
House grew up playing pond hockey in Buffalo and played goalie for the Indianapolis Fire Department's team. At 70 years old, he’s happy to be around the game he loves.
“You can hear the puck bouncing off the boards, you can hear the players hitting each other into the boards. A lot of action, I may not be watching it all but I can hear it all.”