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Chase Chevrolet All-Star Officials Are King, Nissen, Voyer

Published on January 3, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced that Jason Nissen has been selected as the referee and that Ray King and Michel Voyer as the linesmen for the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light.

"We are pleased for our veteran officials who have earned the selection to work the 2008 ECHL All-Star Game," said ECHL Director of Officiating Bryan Lewis. "They are congratulated by the Officiating Management Team of the ECHL and their peers."

Hosted by the Stockton Thunder and the City of Stockton at Stockton Arena, the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light will be played on Jan. 23 with the 11th edition of the Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game Skills Competition being held on Jan. 22.

Nissen is in his fourth season working in the ECHL and his eighth season overall as an official. The 30 year old has worked 250 regular season games plus the Kelly Cup Playoffs all four years, including the conference finals in 2006. He has been invited by the National Hockey League each of the last two years to work preseason NHL prospect camps.

In his eighth season in the ECHL, King has worked more than 350 games and has been an official in the Kelly Cup Playoffs each of the last three seasons including working the Conference Finals and serving as a backup for the Kelly Cup Finals in 2007. The 31 year old began working as an official when he was 14 years old, following in the footsteps of his father, Ray King, who worked ECHL games in Erie, Pa. from 1988-96 and continues to officiate.

Voyer began his referee training in 1980 at the Ron Fournier Referee School in Montreal and he worked his first professional game in the International Hockey League in 1990. He has officiated over 650 professional games and has worked the finals in the postseason 10 times including the 2004 Kelly Cup Finals. He established the California Referee School in 1987, which has had more than 250 graduates work in junior and professional hockey. Voyer is also in his 13th season working as a video replay judge for the National Hockey League.

There are 18 former ECHL officials working in the National Hockey League in 2007-08. Current NHL officials who have worked the ECHL All-Star Game are referees Ian Walsh (1997), Brian Pochmara (2001) and Justin St. Pierre (2002) and linesman Brian Mach (1999) while former NHL referee Jeff Smith worked the 1998 game. Other former ECHL officials on the NHL officiating team are referees David Banfield, Chris Ciamaga, Mike Leggo, Wes McCauley, Dean Morton, Dan O'Rourke, Kevin Pollock, Kyle Rehman, Chris Rooney and Dean Warren, and linesmen Steve Barton, Tim Nowak and Jay Sharrers. Nowak began his officiating career in the ECHL and in 2003 became the first ECHL official to work in the Stanley Cup Finals. He was also part of the officiating crew for the outdoor Winter Classic played in front of an NHL-record 71,217 fans in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game Notes
Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light.

Game will be televised live at 10 p.m. ET on NHL Network for sixth-consecutive year.

Telecast available online free-of-charge through ECHL web site on B2 Networks, the "Official Broadband Broadcast Provider of the ECHL".

Broadcast carried live on XM Radio for third consecutive year on NHL Hockey Play-by-Play (XM Channel 206) at 10 p.m. ET on Jan. 23 in the United States on XM Radio and in Canada through XM Radio's partner, Canadian Satellite Radio.

Stanley Cup and Patrick J. Kelly Cup will be on display at all events.

Henry Brabham, Patrick J. Kelly, Nick Vitucci and Chris Valicevic will be inducted as the inaugural class into the ECHL Hall of Fame at a luncheon on Jan. 23.

Diane and Tom Husband of Phoenix are the winners of the Chase Chevrolet "Win A Trip to the ECHL All-Star Game" contest, receiving roundtrip transportation to Stockton where they will stay at the new Sheraton Stockton Hotel at Regent Pointe, the official host hotel of the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier 'AA' Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league with 25 teams playing 900 games in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 340 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06 and 26 in 2006-07. There have been 195 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past five seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and former Mississippi coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington Capitals.

The ECHL is represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players.

In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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