The National Hockey League
has today announced its eight on-ice officials
who have been selected for the men’s ice hockey
tournament at the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin,
Italy. As the International Ice Hockey Federation
named the IIHF on-ice officials in October, the
list of both the men’s and women’s referees and
linesmen going to the Olympics is now complete.
The men’s tournament will
be officiated by 10 referees and 14 linesmen while
the women’s tournament will have seven referees
and 12 linesmen. The total of 43 on-ice officials
represents 14 nations.
The on-ice officials as
announced by the NHL are referees: Paul Devorski
(CAN), Dennis LaRue (USA), Dan Marouelli (CAN)
and Don Van Massehoven (CAN) and linesmen: Steve
Miller (CAN), Thor Nelson (USA), Pierre Racicot
(CAN) and Tony Sericolo (USA).
Click
here for the complete list of Olympic on-ice officials.
“We are proud of the splendid
co-operation we have with the NHL regarding international
hockey,” says IIHF President René Fasel.
“This is the third consecutive Olympics where
we will have NHL players and NHL referees. This
IIHF-NHL co-operation, a relationship between
bodies with slightly different approaches and
occasionally different rules, provides possibilities
that are beneficial to the game. Sometimes we
learn from them, sometimes they learn from us.”
The officials will be
selected for games by the IIHF Referee Supervisors
and approved by the Olympic tournament directorate.
The NHL has named Dave Baker to join the group
of referee supervisors for the Olympic tournament.
IIHF Referee Supervisors,
men’s tournament: Peter Andersson, Dave Baker,
Jarmo Jalarvo, Gerhard Lichtnecker, Bob Nadin,
and Juraj Okolicany.
Women’s tournament: Sandra
Dombrowski, Manuela Gröger and Matt Leaf.
The Olympic hockey tournament
is played according to IIHF rules. Click here
for a list of major rule differences between the
IIHF and the NHL.
IIHF President René
Fasel has in a recently announced policy statement
declared the objective to conform the IIHF and
NHL rule interpretations focused on hooking, holding
and interference infractions.
There will be three sessions
with the Olympic referees leading up to Torino
2006 to make sure that the six IIHF-referees and
the four NHL-referees who will officiate in the
Olympic men’s tournament, will do so according
to the same standard.
There will be a meeting
with just the NHL-officials in Toronto on December
19-21, while the IIHF-referees convene in Zurich,
Switzerland on January 13-15, 2006. Finally, all
Olympic on-ice officials will go through instructional
sessions in Turin on February 13-14, two days
before the start of the men's tournament.
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