Category News

The LAHOA Executive Board and the LAHOA Board of Directors would like to congratulate Ian Miller and Michael Pecolar on their selection to work the 2019 ACHA National Championship Tournament in Frisco, TX. 

More than 1,500 players from 72 teams across all five ACHA divisions—Men’s Division 1, 2, and 3, and Women’s Divisions 1 and 2 — will converge upon the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area from March 21 through March 31, 2019, to compete in more than 100 games.

The 2019 ACHA National Championships will be played at the newly named Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas as well as additional Children’s Health StarCenter facilities. The Comerica Center complex includes the home practice facility for the NHL Dallas Stars, the Stars’ Executive Offices and a recently renovated 6,000 seat arena.  The arena portion of the complex, formerly Dr Pepper Arena, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment venue that is home of the Texas Legends. (NBA G League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks)

Congratulations to both Ian and Michael!

2018 Under 17 Four Nations Cup

The best hockey players under the age of 17 from Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States descended upon Plymouth, Michigan to compete in the 2018 Under-17 Four Nations Cup presented by Hines Park Lincoln at USA Hockey Arena from December 11-15.

LAHOA members Eric McDonald (Linesman-USH ODP) and Andrew Wilk (Referee-AHL) were both selected by USA Hockey for the week long tournament. When it came down to gold medal assignments, McDonald & Wilk were both got the call! The game finished with a 3-2 overtime thriller won by Russia over Team USA.

Congrats to Andrew Wilk and Eric McDonald on these assignments and way to go out there and represent LAHOA!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Every year LAHOA likes to show their support in every way that we can. We would like to remind you that, as a LAHOA member, you are allowed to wear pink laces and wear pink tape on your whistles and fingers from October 1st to October 31st.

For the whole month of October there will be random games throughout the association that the officials will be given pink referee and linesman sweaters to where during their games. If you are working any league other than SCAHA or CAHA, please reach out to your referee in chief for instructions on breast cancer awareness policies.

We hope to see many officials contribute this year by showing support for the Susan G. Koman foundation and representing LAHOA during breast cancer awareness month!

The LAHOA Executive Board and the Board of Directors would like to congratulate the following officials on being selected to work the 2018 Vegas Rookie Face-off!

• Tyler Hascall (Corona)
• Andrew Wilk (Newport Beach)
• Tanner Nua (Las Vegas)
• Steve Walsh (Temecula)
• Steve Berry (Huntington Beach)
• Neil Campbell (Aliso Viejo)
• Alex Rounds (Laguna Beach)

Here is what you need to know:

Taking place at City National Arena, six teams, including the Golden Knights, will take part in the inaugural event. Rookies from the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks will travel to Las Vegas for the showcase.

The four-day event will feature three games on Saturday, September 8, three games on Sunday, September 9 and three games on Tuesday, September 11. Monday, September 10 will be a practice day for teams. Games 1 and 3 will take place on the Summerlin Hospital Rink, while Game 2 will be played on Star Nursery Rink.

Congratulations to our officials!

As you may have heard by now, longtime LAHOA member, Brian Blumberg, passed away last weekend. Brian’s family has extended the invitation to all that knew Brian to join the Celebration of Brian’s Life.

Thursday, September 6th from 6-9pm

Business Expo Center

1960 S. Anaheim Way

Anaheim, CA. 92805

LAHOA would like to congratulate the following officials on their selection to work the Sled Hockey Event of the 2018 USA Hockey Disabled Hockey Festival! The event will take place in Chicago, April 12-15. The officials will work the Youth C group all the way up to, and including, the National Bracket, which includes Paralympic athletes. There is no other tournament quite like it!  This is an exciting time for our LAHOA members as Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime in dramatic comeback fashion to win Gold at the Paralympics only a few weeks ago in PyeongChang, South Korea.  Many current and former Paralympic team members will be taking part in this event. The officials going to represent LAHOA are:

Matthew Zucker, Matthew Putman, Richard Ozaki

These officials would like to thank LAHOA for it’s support of their initiatives in USA Hockey’s Disabled Sector.

Good luck guys!!!

Recently LAHOA sent officials up to San Jose to work the Pacific District Girls’ and Women’s Championships. The 16u championship game was officiated by an all women’s LAHOA crew! Wearing the bands was Brittany Trani and on the lines were Kristina Wampler and Bridget Gonzalez! What a great out of market representation of our female LAHOA officials on the District stage! Congratulation to you ladies!

On February 13, 2018, the Los Angeles Kings American League affiliate, Ontario Reign, hosted Eisbären Berlin (German Professional Hockey League) in an International Friendly at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA. LAHOA is proud to recognize it’s officials selected to work the game! The crew consisted of referee Andrew Wilk (Newport Beach) linesman, James Parker (Irvine) linesman, Brent Tubbs (Long Beach) and referee, Ryan Hersey from the San Diego Hockey Referees Association (SDHRA). Congratulations on your continued success!

The frozen friendly was played in front of a crowd of 8,749 screaming fans. A lot of which were from Germany who came out to support their team. “They had several full sections of fans who stood and chanted for the duration of the game. It’s like a premier league soccer game.” said referee Andrew Wilk. “At one point they started a ‘conga’ line!” When asked about the style of play Andrew said, “Berlin played a lot of a east to west style while Ontario had a much more physical game.” When all was said and done, Ontario won 6-3 in a game that featured NO penalties. Now that’s game management!

Congratulations! Finish the season strong! 

AHL Box Score Berlin @ Ontario

Officials,

The following is a letter our association received by a fellow sporting official regarding the game he recently watched between the Long Beach and Fullerton ACHA teams. It is not very often we get officials from another sport complementing our work, and I wanted to share his letter with you all. Thanks to those mentioned for representing us well, and to everyone else working this season – keep up the good work!

Mr. Kitano,

I hope this email isn’t a bother, and I appreciate you taking the time to
read it.

My name is Shawn Hochuli, and I am a football Referee in the PAC-12.  I
wanted to drop a quick line regarding a hockey game I watched last night
between Long Beach and Fullerton in Lakewood.

Admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot about hockey.  But, I do know some
about game control and game management when it comes to officiating.  And,
if you don’t mind my saying, it was an immense pleasure to witness the job
that one of your crews did in those areas in a difficult environment.

I don’t know any of the officials, but Mr. Biagi’s crew, including Mr.
Nugent and Mr. Weber were, in my humble opinion, EXCEPTIONAL, throughout the
game.  I was in attendance during an off weekend of my own – to watch a
friend play (on the losing side) – and had no idea the intensity of the
rivalry.  I quickly realized it, though, as the teams were after each other
all night.

Mr. Biagi’s crew worked hard to be in the middle of every skirmish and, I
fully believe, helped prevent many a melee with their preventive
officiating.  The game easily could have turned into an all-out brawl had
they not exercised such command, authority, and presence that proper game
control and game management necessitate.

Watching your crew in action last night made me proud to be a part of the
officiating brethren.

Congratulations on the fine work you do in training such top notch
officials, and to that crew for representing us all in such a fine manner.

Good luck with the rest of your season,

Shawn Hochuli
PAC-12 football Referee (and now NFL referee!)