All the pressure in the world could not have been any greater than working a final game of any championship series. Game 8 is just that game. With years of experience behind them, Hockey Canada and BC Hockey are pleased to announce the names of the officials selected to officiate in Game 8 for the Super Series.
The series features top players from the Soviet Union vs. Canada's top Junior age players. Say what they want, pressure is on the players, but not as much as the officials. I spoke to Lloyd Gilmore a few years back and he was the Referee who officiated the “now famous” game in which the Russians pulled the team off the ice in Philly.
Interesting enough Matt Pavolich was the one linesman and he spoke fluent Russian, to everyone's surprise, but great for the officiating crew. The three young officials still have a vision of one day officiating in the NHL, but it's all about patience and keeping your “nose clean”.
Professionalism along with dedication goes a long way and the three selected deserve to be chosen.
The game Referee officiated for the Vancouver Thunderbird Association, while one Linesman is from Abbotsford and the other from Surrey. Says a lot about the programs in place by BC Hockey and the supervision they receive. Under the guidance of Provincial RIC, Peter Zerbinos he has a crew second to none when it comes to training. It's all about training today's young officials to be tomorrow's stars. Not an easy task, but worth working on.
The game referee is Pat Smith and the Linesman are Kiel Murchison and Chris DeHaan. The Super Series is (at this time) an 8 game series featuring the best under 20 players from Canada and Russia. The first four held in Russia and the final four held in Canada. The following locations were selected as host cities, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer and Vancouver.
Congratulations to Pat, Kiel and Chris on the selection.
For additional information visit www.bchockey.net
