Canadian Coach Favors American Ref...For Game Against The U.S.

Thursday, the United States and Canada will play for women's hockey gold at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. For an international contest of this magnitude, you'd expect that a referee from a neutral country to be in charge.

But Canadian coach Melody Davidson disagrees with that line of thinking.

Surprisingly, Davidson would rather see American Leah Wrazidlo call the decisive game over either of the European officials the International Ice Hockey Federation could also select. She feels that Wrazidlo, as a North American, would call a more consistent game and be fair to both teams in the process.

An American referee, Stacey Livingston, actually called the 2002 gold medal game between the two teams. That decision wasn't viewed quite so favorably, as Geraldine Heaney's quote of "She might as well put on their jersey," summed up Canadian feelings about the 12 penalty calls that went against them during their 3-1 victory, 

Thanks to the presence of NHL players, North American refs have officiated matchups between the American and Canadian men at recent Winter Games. American Chris Rooney and Canadian Brad Watson were in charge of Sunday's U.S. win, and Guelph, Ontario's Bill McCreary was in charge of Canada's gold medal triumph in Salt Lake City eight years ago.