NHL To Use Two Refs In Playoffs

The National Hockey League likes the two-referee system so much that it decided Tuesday to employ it throughout the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs.

From Oct. 16 to Feb. 28, each team played 10 home games and 10 road games under the two-referee system. Since 1992, the league has experimented with the system in the preseason.

"The general managers and governors of our clubs were overwhelmingly in support of the two-referee system for use in the playoffs," NHL senior vice president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell said. "When the system was phased in during the regular season, the games had a quicker pace, interference was reduced and improper conduct behind the play was controlled."

Under the new system, ill conduct behind plays -- something that has plagued the NHL in the past -- has become almost entirely detectable.

For the remainder of the regular season, games will be played with the conventional one-referee system.

Other rules changes implemented at the beginning of this season were moving the goal lines 2 feet further from the end boards to 13 feet, and a two-foot reduction on both sides of the goal crease.

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