It is not the first time in icehockey that the referee came from the same country as one of the teams. I never could understand that. In football (European meaning of term), e.g., the referee of a final will not even come from the countries of one of the beaten teams in the quarter and semi-finals nor will the referee of a semi-final come from one of the teams the winner might encounter in a final.

Nobody really seems to care in icehockey. For instance, the quarter final (men) in which the USA played was also refereed by a US referee. And nobody can tell me that there wouldn't have been e.g. a Canadian referee for that match with some spare time. Not that it mattered really in that one-sided game, but there are matches in which it could matter.

Wolfgang