The NCAA Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Rules Committee made several minor adjustments to its rules, but focused on overall better rules enforcement for the 2004-05 season.

All rules changes and experimental rules must be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which will meet in August via conference call to review the proposed changes.

During its review of the rules, the committee felt comfortable that the sport has proper rules in place for officials to adequately police game action. Instead of making several points of emphasis -- as was the past practice -- the committee decided to make overall enforcement of the rules its only focus.

"The rules are there to manage the game," said Tony Mariano, athletics director at Norwich University and chair of the committee. "We really feel there is the need to clean up some parts of the game that have slowly deteriorated."

The wording in the point of emphasis is precise and clear:

"Strong sentiment has been voiced to the committee regarding concern with the existing culture and state of the game. This year, the rules committee strongly emphasizes correct and strict application of the rules. It is the responsibility of coaches, players, officials and administrators to support this initiative. The rules committee believes that strict enforcement of the rules, regardless of game time or situation, is critical to the state of the collegiate ice hockey."

While the committee's stance is a strong one, Mariano understands that this focus must be embraced by conferences and institutions for it to make a difference.

"The bottom line is that our officials are being asked to tighten up what has been an accepted part of many games," he said. "The officials must be supported by conferences, coaches and institutions when they set a standard that is different from what it was in the past."

The major topic of conversation for the committee was a thorough evaluation of the goal crease rule. After several controversial calls in games that use video replay (replay is only allowed during regular-season and postseason tournaments), the committee reviewed the National Hockey League's more lenient policy with regard to the goal crease and how it is interpreted.

Ultimately, the committee decided to take no action on the goal crease rule, citing many of the past reasons for changes that have been made.

"In the college game, we have made the crease smaller in recent years and have protected the goalkeeper fully in that area," Mariano said. "The NHL rule and interpretation is more than 10 pages long and puts more judgment back on the official. While there may be some goals that are disallowed during video reviews, the majority of our games are played without replay. This is one rule where there is a clear-cut line. We felt that, overall, there was not reason for a change."

Video replay was another subject that was discussed at length. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association requested that the committee allow the league to experiment with video replay during the regular season for a two-year period beginning in 2004-05. After rejecting a similar proposal at last year's meeting, the committee approved the request and will allow the WCHA to use the system at the University of Denver and Colorado College.

The procedure will allow for the referee to review footage at the scorer's bench in a modified procedure of what is approved in the rules book. This system is something the committee will consider after the two-year experimental phase is completed and the WCHA reports its findings to the committee.

The committee also considered actions relating to structure and membership of the rules committee: