It has been a long tournament for the 16 referees and 16 linesmen at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and same as the players, they are watched by fans and evaluated by supervisors. Only those performing the best get assignments for the final weekend, and getting an assignment for a gold medal game means for them as much as for a player being in that game.

Gofman and Wehrli had their first game together on the last day of the preliminary round, between Canada and Finland, and they must have impressed their bosses. After being split for the quarter-finals, they officiated last night’s Canada-USA semi-final together and today got the job for the gold medal game. You can’t get any higher than that at a World Championship as a ref.

For Wehrli it will be the third gold medal game after last year’s final in Prague and – as a linesman – the final in 2010 in Cologne. For Gofman it will be the first gold medal game in this category in his third World Championship.

The bronze medal game will be officiated by referees Tobias Bjork (SWE) and Martin Frano (CZE), and linesmen Miroslav Lhotsky (CZE) and Henrik Pihlblad (SWE).