36 game officials have been nominated including Roman Gofman and Olivier Gouin, pictured with IIHF President René Fasel after the gold medal game of the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images
The International Ice Hockey Federation has named 36 game officials for the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which will take place from 21 May to 6 June in Riga, Latvia.
The list includes veteran game officials including five referees who have previously called World Championship gold medal games (Bjork, Gofman, Gouin, Jerabek, Schrader) as well as rookies who have shown their abilities at other IIHF events and at national level.
The on-ice officials have been selected based on their performances in their leagues. While for the other two championships in spring organized in Canada and the United States there was a bigger focus on North American referees due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, for the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship the focus was on referees and linesmen working their games in Europe for the same reason. The nominations from the IIHF Officiating Committee have been approved by the IIHF Council.
The 18 referees and 18 linesmen come from 14 different countries. For the first time the game officials will be split into units of six officials (three referees, three linesmen) who will stay together while officiating and practising in Riga.
“This is an approach to reflect the special circumstances with COVID-19 and a great chance to test it also for the future,” said Sergej Gontcharov, Chairman of the IIHF Officiating Committee and IIHF Council member.
“Thanks to the better coordination between the officials and keeping one line of officiating, we believe that this could raise the level of officiating, similar to what we have seen in other sports.”
Click here for all assignments of the 2020/2021 season.
The list includes veteran game officials including five referees who have previously called World Championship gold medal games (Bjork, Gofman, Gouin, Jerabek, Schrader) as well as rookies who have shown their abilities at other IIHF events and at national level.
The on-ice officials have been selected based on their performances in their leagues. While for the other two championships in spring organized in Canada and the United States there was a bigger focus on North American referees due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, for the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship the focus was on referees and linesmen working their games in Europe for the same reason. The nominations from the IIHF Officiating Committee have been approved by the IIHF Council.
The 18 referees and 18 linesmen come from 14 different countries. For the first time the game officials will be split into units of six officials (three referees, three linesmen) who will stay together while officiating and practising in Riga.
“This is an approach to reflect the special circumstances with COVID-19 and a great chance to test it also for the future,” said Sergej Gontcharov, Chairman of the IIHF Officiating Committee and IIHF Council member.
“Thanks to the better coordination between the officials and keeping one line of officiating, we believe that this could raise the level of officiating, similar to what we have seen in other sports.”
Click here for all assignments of the 2020/2021 season.
Game Officials Assignment
| Referees | Linesmen | ||
| ANSONS, Andris | LAT | CONSTANTINEAU, Nicolas | FRA |
| BJORK, Tobias | SWE | GOLYAK, Dmitri | BLR |
| BRUGGEMAN, Andrew | USA | HYNEK, Daniel | CZE |
| FRANDSEN, Mads | DEN | KROYER, Andreas Weise | DEN |
| FRANO, Martin | CZE | LAZAREV, Gleb | RUS |
| GOFMAN, Roman | RUS | LUNDGREN, Ludvig | SWE |
| GOUIN, Olivier | CAN | McCRANK, Dustin | CAN |
| HEIKKINEN, Lassi | FIN | MERTEN, Jonas | GER |
| JERABEK, Antonin | CZE | NIKULAINEN, Lauri | FIN |
| NORD, Mikael | SWE | OBWEGESER, David | SUI |
| ROMASKO, Yevgeni | RUS | OLIVER, Brian | USA |
| SCHRADER, Andre | GER | ONDRACEK, Jiri | CZE |
| SIDORENKO, Maxim | BLR | SEEWALD, Elias | AUT |
| SIR, Robin | CZE | SHALAGIN, Nikita | RUS |
| STANO, Peter | SVK | SORMUNEN, Hannu | FIN |
| STERNAT, Christoph | AUT | SYNEK, Simon | SVK |
| TSCHERRIG, Michael | SUI | YLETYINEN, Emil | SWE |
| VIKMAN, Kristian | FIN | ZUNDE, Davis | LAT |