The NCAA Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Rules Committee clarified the assistant referee's responsibilities and focused on obstruction, intent to injure, diving and speeding up the game at its annual meeting May 21-24 in New Orleans.

While the committee did not make any sweping changes in its rules, it did make several important clarifications. The first clarification - and perhaps most highly publicized - deals with one officiating system allwed by the rules book.

Under 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 role of the assistant referee was discussed at length. It was the consensus at the American Hockey Coaches Association meeting in April that this needed clarification.

"The committee did not feel the system needed to be changed, because what is in place is fine," said Joe Bertagna, Commissioner of the 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 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.

"In some areas, there was the interpretation that assistant referees should not call penalties in the same zone as the head referee," Bertagna said. "While the head referee has the primary responsibility to call panalties, major penalties or clear penalties - such as attempt to injure - must be called regardless of where they happen."

Frank Cole, the NCAA's National Coordinator of Officials, agreed with the committee's clarification and said, for the most part, this is not going to be a change.

"The majority of games taht 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."

Keeping with officiating issues, the committee decided to forward a request to the Division III Men's Ice Hockey Committee, asking them to consider using the one referee, two assistant referee system in their championship. The committee feels that, while it is important to have some flexibility, having one national system of officiating will be more beneficial.

The committee did alter several playing rules it felt would improve the game. The committee made diving a point of emphasis again this season after enacting the penalty two seasons ago. Diving - the act of embellishing a potential infraction to draw a penalty - has not been called consistently, in the committee's opinion.

When the committee put the penalty in place a year ago, it was thought the penalty might be called more if it were a misconduct, so the player is penalized, not the team. The committee voted to make the penalty for this infraction a minor (two-minute) penalty starting this season.

"Diving should not be part of the game," Bertagna said. "It was the committee's feeling that perhaps officials will call a minor penalty more quickly than they would call a misconduct. We hope this will be the case."

The committee adopted a new rule for instigating. While there are provisions in the book to make this call in other ways, the committee felt felt the officials needed a better tool. A penalty for instigating may only be called when penalties are assessed to both teams.

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

Obstruction, also a point of emphasis a year ago, has been generally well received. The committee felt another year of emphasis would continue the evolution of the penalty.

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

The site for faceoffs following an official's error was also modified. The committee felt the officials should have the opportunity to put some faceoffs at a spot other than center ice when an official's error caused a stoppage and a center ice face-off might inadvertently penalize an innocent team.

For example, Team A pulls its goaltender late in the 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 two 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. "An official already feels badly enough to make a mistake, but it's compounded when you penalize one team more than another."

The group also talked about video replay procedures, which are used in the Division I men's Ice Hockey and National Collegiate Women's Championships. The committee agreed that the change in protocol has been a positive one. Additionally, 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 distiction."

The committee spent a portion of the meeting discussing format for games. The committee enacted a shootout protocol for regular-season tournament games only. The committee also voted to implement a protocol for mini-games, which are used in the Division III championships and some conference tournaments.

Speeding up the game is a new point of emphasis this season. The committee made several changes relating to this, including limiting the time for player substitutions at a stoppage of play. The group also added wording that will force all players to be stationary during faceoffs.

It's in the interest of players, coaches and fans to have games played in an efficient way," Bertagna said.

Intent to injure penalties comprise the last point of emphasis. The main focus is stick fouls, which the committee emphasized a year ago. These penalties continue to be a problem.

"These include salshing, checking from behind, high-sticking, blows to the head and anything that would give them 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 rules actions:

- Jewelry will no longer be allowed. If a player wears jewelry during a game, they shall receive a misconduct penalty. If they return to the ice without removing the jewelry, the player shall receive a game misconduct.

- The committee reinforced that each team must start play with two goalkeepers, unless there are extraordinary circumstances. 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.

- Clarified that the rules committee is the sole source for interpretations of the rules, other than administrative issues. The administrative rules are noted in the front of the rules book. Conference policy or mutual consent of competing teams arew not grounds to alter playing rules.

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

- Allowed a penalized player that was injured to return to the penalty box when the player is able to do so. This allows the player serving the penalty to participate in the game.

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

The committee is about to expand to 12 members (from seven). Nominations are being sought.