Watch your mouth!

Fasel condemns Fetisov for being critical of officiating

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) -- International hockey's governing body angrily rejected claims by the Russian coach that a referee cost his team a chance to win the gold medal.

Rene Fasel, head of the ice hockey federation, defended the officiating at the Salt Lake City Olympics, saying Saturday it was "of the highest possible level."

After his team lost 3-2 to the United States in the semifinals Friday, coach Slava Fetisov criticized the referee and said a Canada-United States gold-medal game was intended all along.

"The referee's decisions were not the reason why Russia lost," Fasel said.

Fetisov, however, said Canada and the United States got an unfair advantage under an agreement requiring NHL referees in games in which players from the league make up 50 percent of the rosters.

Bill McCreary of Canada was the referee for the Russia-U.S. game and also will work the Canada-U.S. game Sunday. The other NHL referees in Salt Lake City are Stephen Walkom and Dennis LaRue, both of the United States.

Fetisov stood by his remarks Saturday.

"In a competition like that, the refereeing should be neutral. They made the agreement before, and we're kind of hostages of this situation," Fetisov said.

Several Russian players, including Danny Markov, screamed at McCreary as he left the ice after Friday's game, causing Markov to be suspended for Russia's 7-2 bronze-medal victory Saturday over Belarus.

"You can always criticize certain calls and try to prove that the referee made a mistake in a certain situation," Fasel said in a statement. "But when the coach of a team tries to undermine and question the integrity of the Olympic hockey tournament, it makes me very angry and disappointed."

Russian goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, no doubt aware he must go back to playing in games officiated by NHL referees and linesmen, disagreed with Fetisov's comments, saying the officiating was fair.

Khabibulin probably had more problems with a defense that didn't tighten up until the start of the third period, when Russia trailed 3-0 and Khabibulin had faced 38 shots to only 11 for U.S. goalie Mike Richter.

Fetisov, a longtime Soviet star before starting his NHL playing and coaching career, was under considerable pressure to win a gold medal with a lineup loaded with high-scoring forwards. Some Russian players lobbied Russian president Vladimir Putin to choose Fetisov, who is not especially popular with Russian hockey federation officials.

Even before the hockey loss, the Russians had threatened to leave Salt Lake City because of alleged favoritism in other sports, including figure skating, before deciding to stay.

"I have known Slava Fetisov for many years and I consider him a good friend and hope that he made the comments in the heat of the moment and that he really didn't mean what he said," Fasel said.

Fetisov sticks to bias claims

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 23 (Reuters) -- Russia coach Vyacheslav Fetisov again hit out at North American and international ice hockey chiefs as his team finished a disappointing third in the Olympic tournament on Saturday

"He [Canadian NHL referee Bill McCreary] just killed us," Fetisov said, repeating Friday's remarks about the 3-2 semifinal loss to the U.S.

"They [the referees] live here [in North America], they work here, they get paid by the NHL, therefore it's only natural that in crucial situations they will not make any calls against the U.S. or Canada," Fetisov had said.

He claimed: "It was designed to be a U.S.-Canada final and now they have it."

Fetisov's comments angered Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

"You can always criticise certain calls and try to prove that the referee made a mistake in a certain situation," Fasel hit back in a statement on Saturday.

"But when a coach of a team tries to undermine and question the integrity of the Olympic ice hockey tournament, it makes me very angry and disappointed."

The statement did not say whether any sanctions could be taken by the IIHF toward Fetisov.

Asked to comment on Fasel's statement following the 7-2 defeat of Belarus in the bronze medal game, Fetisov said: "What's the point? I have got the video evidence, but I don't want to make excuses for our team."

The Russians claimed they had made it 3-3 late in the final period, but McCreary refused to review the play despite vehement protests by Fetisov and the entire team.

McCreary, who called the gold-medal game between Russia and the Czech Republic in 1998, won by the Czechs, is one of seven NHL officials chosen to work the Salt Lake Olympics.

Fetisov said he was mystified why the referee would not review the play, and was also upset by several no-calls by McCreary in the last 10 minutes.

"I know the rules state that video officials must contact the referee if they want to have a play reviewed, but I also know that at least in one case they made an exception for the Czechs in this tournament," he said on Saturday.

"I don't know why they chose to ignore our plea."

He also took a swipe at the IIHF and the Salt Lake organisers for the tight scheduling of the Olympic tournament which gives teams little time to rest.

"I know that it was agreed a long time ago about the NHL referees working at this tournament, but who made such a schedule here that we must play Belarus less than 15 hours after our game against the U.S.?," asked Fetisov.

"There is a rule in the NHL that says you can't play back-to-back games less than 24 hours apart, but here we are forced to play less than 15 hours," he added.

"I just wonder if the IIHF and the organisers care enough about the players' health. We lost two guys, Oleg Kvasha and Alexei Zhamnov, to serious injuries today because the players simply don't have enough time to rest after the game."

 

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