The IIHF referees and linesmen are ready to take the ice at the 2021 World Championship.
This year’s tournament is being held in Riga, Latvia, after being relocated from its original site in Belarus.
The 18 referees and 18 linesmen representing 14 different countries will be split into six groups of six officials each – three referees, three linesmen – who will practice and officiate together as a crew. Two of the referees will work on the ice, with the remaining ref on standby. Same for the linesmen.
“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.”
Here are the tournament officials:
Referees
-
- #20 Andris Ansons (LAT)
- #23 Tobias Bjork (SWE)
- #27 Andrew Bruggeman (USA)
- #28 Mads Franzen (DEN)
- #11 Martin Frano (CZE)
- #25 Roman Gofman (RUS)
- #10 Olivier Gouin (CAN)
- #29 Lassi Heikkinen (FIN)
- #24 Antonin Jerabek (CZE)
- #18 Mikael Nord (SWE)
- #31 Yevgeni Romasko (RUS)
- #15 Andre Schrader (GER)
- #19 Max Sidorenko (BLR)
- #21 Robin Sir (CZE)
- #35 Peter Stano (SVK)
- #12 Christoph Sternat (AUT)
- #22 Michael Tscherrig (SUI)
- #13 Kristian Vikman (FIN)
Linesmen
-
- #60 Nicolas Constantineau (FRA)
- #59 Dmitri Golyak (BLR)
- #64 Daniel Hynek (CZE)
- #56 Andreas Weise Kroyer (DEN)
- #75 Gleb Lazarev (RUS)
- #53 Ludvig Lundgren (SWE)
- #61 Dustin McCrank (CAN)
- #67 Jonas Merten (GER)
- #72 Lauri Nikulainen (FIN)
- #65 David Obwegeser (SUI)
- #58 Brian Oliver (USA)
- #50 Jiri Ondracek (CZE)
- #69 Elias Seewald (AUT)
- #54 Nikita Shalagin (RUS)
- #57 Hannu Sormunen (FIN)
- #66 Simon Synek (SVK)
- #68 Emil Yletinen (SWE)
- #55 Davis Zunde (LAT)
From the IIHF:
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.
Officiating managers are former NHL referee Greg Kimmerly (CAN), along with Jukka Pakaslahti (FIN), Alexander Polyakov (RUS), Thomas Schurr (GER), Vladimir Sindler (CZE), and Tomas Thorsbrink (SWE).
The tournament kicks off May 21, with the gold medal game set for June 6.
