Reward for commitment and quality performance — that’s the approach Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador referee-in-chief Ed Flood is taking when assigning game officials for the 2018 Herder Championship getting underway tonight in Clarenville.
Flood, who took over the referee-in-chief post this season, said officials from both leagues represented at this year’s best-of-seven senior hockey showcase will be given a chance to work a game in the series.
He said it’s only fair that officials who worked regular season games in the respective leagues get to be part of the Herder, what is in all likelihood the biggest games they could handle in this province.
Officials from the Central West Senior Hockey League will handle the first two games of the series, Saturday and Sunday at the Clarenville Events Centre, with the Caribous hosting the St. John’s Capitals.
Games 3, 4 and 5 (if necessary) will be played at the Jack Byrne Arena in Torbay, the official home rink of the East representatives, with officials from that league handling the games.
“If you carry the torch for your league for the entire season, I think it’s, ‘Congratulations, you did a great job for us, so we’re going to put you on the ice,’” Flood said Thursday afternoon.
If the series goes past five games, Flood said, who handles the balance of the series will be a call made by himself based on the performance of all officials in the games leading up to Game 6.
“You earn the right to do it,” he said.
One year ago, there was controversy in the final game of the Herder — a series that saw the Caribous lose to the Conception Bay CeeBee Stars on a goal that clearly went under the net and not into the net.
The goal stood up, despite a strong protest from the Caribous, as the winning goal in the deciding game.
Flood knows what happened last year and he has expressed his concerns about the nets at the Clarenville Events Centre. He is hoping to meet with executive members of the Caribous on Saturday to have a look at the nets to see if something can be done about the net always coming off.
“The hole in the ice isn’t deep enough for the post to go in and the net just pops off all the time,” Flood said of the concern about the net.
“I suggest they drill a hole and drop the pin in. It will make it harder to push the net off,” he said.
Game 1 of the Herder goes tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Clarenville Events Centre.
