While the committee did not make any sweeping changes in the rules, it did make several important clarifications. The first clarification deals with the one-referee, two-assistant-referee system, which is used in the Division I men's championship and the National Collegiate women's event.

"The committee did not feel the system needed to be changed because what is in place is fine," said Joe Bertagna, commissioner of Hockey East Association and chair of the committee. "There were some different interpretations of what the assistant referee's duties were and we wanted to clarify those duties."

The committee adopted the following note to include in the rules book to clarify the role of the assistant referee:

"The prime responsibility to call penalties resides with the referee. It is expected that assistant referees will call major penalties, minor penalties behind the play and flagrant minor penalties (not observed by the referee), particularly those that deny a scoring opportunity or could lead to injury or an altercation."

Frank Cole, the NCAA's national coordinator of officials, agreed with the committee's clarification and said, for the most part, that the new language will result in little change.

"The majority of games that use this system are already following this guideline," Cole said. "We're not asking assistant referees to call all of the penalties. We're asking them to call the infractions that prevent a scoring chance or could result in injury to a player."

Rules changes

In other officiating issues, the committee asked the Division III Men's Ice Hockey Committee to consider using the one-referee, two- assistant-referee system in the Division III championship. The committee believes that while some flexibility is important, having one national system of officiating will be more beneficial.

The committee put the penalty in place so that the penalty might be called more if it were a misconduct -- to penalize the player, not the team. The committee voted to make the penalty for this infraction a minor (two-minute) penalty.

"Diving should not be a part of the game," Bertagna said. "Perhaps officials will call a minor penalty more quickly than they would a misconduct. We hope that will be the case."

"There are too many situations where one player starts an altercation, but both players are given the same penalty," Bertagna said. "We hope this penalty will allow officials to make this call and that it will cut down on penalties after the whistle."

Obstruction, also a point of emphasis a year ago, has been generally well-received. The committee thought another year of emphasis would continue the trend.

"We've made some progress in this area, but there's room for improvement," Bertagna said.

For example, Team A pulls its goaltender late in a game and has possession of the puck inside Team B's zone. Seeing six skaters on the ice, the assistant referee stops play, thinking Team A has too many players on the ice. Clearly, having a center-ice faceoff, which was the rule in the past, would penalize Team A. In this case, the official should opt to have the faceoff in Team B's zone, minimizing the error made by the official.

"This is a common-sense change," Bertagna said. "In that instance, the official already feels bad enough about the mistake, but it's compounded when you penalize one team more than another."

Other issues

The committee also talked about video replay procedures, which are used in the Division I men's and National Collegiate women's championships. The committee agreed that the change in protocol has been a positive one. Also, the group voted to mandate that the video replay official must be in the arena.

"This is such an important part of the game and our tournaments," Bertagna said. "The video replay official has the ability to stop the game to look at a replay. The official should be in the arena to make that distinction."

The last point of emphasis involved intent-to-injure penalties. Stick fouls, which the committee emphasized a year ago, are the main focus. Those penalties continue to be a problem.

"They include slashing, checking from behind, high-sticking, blows to the head and anything that would give the game a black eye," Bertagna said. "One of the great things about college hockey is the intensity and pace, and we don't want to take away from that. At the same time, dangerous penalties must not be tolerated."

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Rules Committee
May 21-24/New Orleans

Stipulated that jewelry no longer will be allowed. If a player wears jewelry during a game, he or she shall receive a misconduct penalty. If the player returns to the ice without removing the jewelry, he or she shall receive a game misconduct.

Reinforced that each team must start play with two goalkeepers, unless extraordinary circumstances exist. In those instances, the rules committee must be contacted. The penalty for not starting a game with two goaltenders, previously a minor penalty, has been changed to forfeiture.

Voted to award a penalty shot/optional minor for any player who deliberately knocks the net off its pegs to prevent a goal, regardless of when it happens. Previously, a penalty shot/optional minor was awarded only in the last two minutes of a game or in overtime.

Voted to allow a penalized player who was injured to return to the penalty box when able to do so. This allows the player serving the penalty to participate in the game.

Heard a presentation from Frank Cole, NCAA national coordinator of ice hockey officials, regarding officiating. Each conference's supervisor of officials also was invited to attend a portion of the meeting.