Bialota, Fay, Jones To Officiate All-Star Game

Published on January 14, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release

PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced on Saturday that Matt Bialota has been selected to referee the 2006 ECHL All-Star Game presented by Bud Light while Rob Fay and David Jones have been chosen to work as linesmen.

Bialota is in his fifth season in the ECHL and has worked the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his seasons, including the Kelly Cup Finals each of the past two years. In his 11th season as a referee, the Pittsburgh native has worked in the American Hockey League, the Western Professional Hockey League, the United States Hockey League and the American Frontier Hockey League. He was an NHL trainee in 1998-2000 and worked the USHL All-Star Game in 1998 and the WPHL All-Star Game in 2000.

In his fourth season in the ECHL, Jones has worked over 350 games as a linesman including the Kelly Cup Playoffs each of his first three years including the 2005 Kelly Cup Finals and the 2004 Conference Finals. Jones, who was born in Kamloops, British Columbia, and raised in Hope, British Columbia, worked in the Western Hockey League in 2001-02 after two seasons in the British Columbia Junior A Hockey League where he worked both the league and conference finals. He spent three seasons in the Pacific International Junior B League working the finals in 1998 and 1999.

In his third season in the ECHL, Fay worked the conference finals in the Western Hockey League in 2003 and 2004 and worked the Taylor Cup Finals in the West Coast Hockey League in 2002 and 2003. Fay, who was invited to and attended the NHL Officiating Prospects Camp in 2002 and 2003 and who attended the California Referees School from 1996-99, worked his first professional game in the WCHL in 1996 at the age of 17 and worked his first full season in the WHL in 1998.

NHL referee Ian Walsh worked the 1997 ECHL All-Star Game while NHL linesman Brian Mach worked the 1999 ECHL All-Star Game. NHL-contracted referees Jeff Smith, Brian Pochmara and Justin St. Pierre worked the 1998, 2001 and 2002 ECHL All-Star Games, respectively. Smith, Pochmara and St. Pierre are all presently officiating in the AHL and NHL.

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