World Championship officials selected
by Martin Merk|07 APR 2021
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
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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.

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