The IIHF has announced the referees and linesmen working the 2020 World Junior Championship.  This year’s tournament gets underway December 26 in the Czech Republic. The gold medal game is scheduled for January 5, 2020.  Group A is made up of Finland, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Switzerland, and Slovakia. Teams in Group B are Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

 

Referees

Campbell, Michael (CAN)
Fateyev, Ivan (RUS)
Harnebring, Andreas (SWE)
Heikkinen, Lassi (FIN)
Hejduk, Oldrich (CZE)
Lawrence, Fraser (CAN)
MacFarlane, Sean (USA)
Morozov, Sergei (RUS)
Pesina, Vladimir (CZE)
Schrader, Andre (GER)
Tscherrig, Michael (SUI)
Vikman, Kristian (FIN)

 

Linesmen

Bowles, Riley (USA)
Hagerstrom, Markus (FIN)
Huseby, Chad (CAN)
Lederer, Vit (CZE)
Lundgren, Ludvig (SWE)
Merten, Jonas (GER)
Nordlander, Tobias (SWE)
Obwegeser, David (SUI)
Shalagin, Nikita (RUS)
Synek, Simon (SVK)

 

All three Canadian officials currently officiate in the Western Hockey League.  Campbell also works in the AHL, alongside American representatives Riley Bowles and Sean MacFarlane; MacFarlane also wears the stripes in the ECHL.

“It was definitely unexpected and I was a little bit surprised when I found out,” said Canadian linesman Chad Huseby.  “It’s a very unique opportunity. One that you don’t really expect to get the call. When you do, it’s definitely humbling and pretty gratifying. Just looking forward to heading over and hopefully performing at a high level overseas.”

Campbell (Surrey, B.C.) previously worked the 2019 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Sweden, alongside MacFarlane (Otis Orchards, Washington) and Bowles (Willowbrook, Illinois). Lawrence (Edmonton, Alberta) handled the IIHF World Under-18 Championship Division III Group B in Mexico, and the IIHF 2019 Under 20 World Championship Division III in Iceland.

Bowles is also on the long-list of potential officials for the 2020 World Championship in Switzerland.

Huseby (Sylvan Lake, Alberta) talked about the preparation when transitioning to an international assignment.

“There’ll be a lot of rule review and trying to understand the differences,” said Huseby. “Other than that, just work as hard as I can every night. Just make sure I’m in the best form possible.”

From the IIHF:

The Ostravar Arena (previously known as CEZ Arena) in Ostrava successfully hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in 2004 and 2015. The city of 300,000 inhabitants will be the main venue where the Czech U20 national team will play and the medal games will be held. The arena offers a capacity for almost 10,000 fans.

The Werk Arena in Trinec opened in 2014 and can hold 5,200 fans. Trinec, a town of 37,000 inhabitants, is about 45 kilometres away from Ostrava and easily reachable by car or the regular train service.

Both cities are located in the Moravian-Silesian Region in the east of the country close to the border with Poland and Slovakia.

The Czechs most recently hosted the World Juniors in Pardubice and Liberec 2008.  Ostrava was previously the site of the 1994 World Juniors. Both the 2008 event and the 1994 championship saw Canada finish first, followed by Sweden, then Russia.

Congratulations to the officials selected to work this year’s World Juniors!