Quite honestly, the easiest way to determine assists in my opinion is to
use change of possession as the only guideline. In other words, unless
there is a definite change of possession, the passing sequence continues
and there is a goal and the last two players other than the goal scorer to
be involed in the sequence receive assists.
 
I'll give you an example of this sequence of passes -- 15(goal
scorer)-16-15-16-15-16-15-16-8.  In this instance, the scoring would be 15
from 16 and 8. Some argue you shouldn't go that far back, but where do you
draw the line? To me, change of possession is the easiest, because that's
pretty easy to determine.
 
As for the examples Mike and Wayne gave, I believe that if the other team
accidentally tips the puck into his own net or it goes off his pads into
his own net you should not penalize the offensive team. And this goes back
to change of possession. However, if a player actually shoots it into his
own net by mistake, then obviously the goal should be unassisted.
 
As for a player body checking an opponent off the puck and then having his
teammate pick up the puck and go in and score and then awarding the player
that body-checked the opponent off the puck an assist....I'm not a fan of
giving the player an assist because I think it opens up too many loopholes.
I can't argue that is was a direct contribution to the goal, however, then
you could start to argue that the off winger held up his man (perhaps even
illegally) and he should get credit for an assist.
 
Summing this up, it is easiest, in my opinion to use change of possession
as the rule of thumb in awarding assists and also stipulate that a player
must touch the puck to get credit for an assist. (and yes, this includes
kicking the puck to a teammate with the skate).
 
As for what it cost to implement using video replay to determine assists in
the WCHA....not much...a small TV monitor ($150-$200), a VCR ($150-$250) a
splitter ($5), and some cable ($20).  At our rink the coaches video is done
from the pressbox so it is a piece of cake. But, at Colorado College (the
old Broadmoor), the video was done on the opposite side of the pressbox.
They just simply ran cable across the top of the rafters to the pressbox
side and plugged right into the camera feed. It's not complicated to do,
and not expensive.
 
One final comment. What Keith said happened at Bowling Green is what
shouldn't happen in college hockey. As he described it, the Notre Dame
players said #2 and #10 should have assists on a goal originally announced
unassisted. And after checking to make sure that #2 and #10 were on the
ice, the assists were just added. The technology to use replay is right in
everyone's lap and not that costly or difficult to set up.
 
We had a similar situation here last weekend with North Dakota where the
North Dakota media said on two different occasions that North Dakota
players should have assists on certain goals. We took the information down
and reviewed the goals after the period. In both cases, the media was
wrong. One goal was called unassisted, and rightly so, and the other goal
had one assist (they wanted two), and that goal did just have one assist.
 
Enough rambling for now. I'm interested in responses.
 
        Regards,
        Dave Fischer, MTU SID