Edited sentence: " said Nikultsev."How could a modest Soviet hockey federation official have an impact on our national team's success."Still, having said that, one has to admit that our players had no reason to complain about refereeing in the world championships, Canada Cups, the Izvestiya Cup and other games.(There was outrage from the Canadian squad at the officiating of Josef Kompala, so much so in the lead up games to game 8, an agreement between the Russians and Canada was made for game 8 that Kompala would not be officiating in the decisive game.Alan Eagleson jumped from the stands into the players/officiating area to voice his protest and was promptly hauled away by security forces only to have Peter Mahovolich intervene from the ice and haul Eagleson onto the ice and out of police custody.An interesting April 2002 interview of retired Russian hockey official Valentin Nikultsev confirmed that Russian officials often were pressured by the governing hockey federation in international games of special importance.Despite a negotiated agreement that Kompala would not officiate the final game, Canada was outraged at the last minute reversal and re-insertion of Kompala instead of the Swedish referee that both parties had agreed upon.Game 8 almost wasn't played when the Canadians protested the inclusion of Kompala in game 8.I like to think I did have a small role to play.Something that has been largely overlooked however was the atrociously one sided refereeing in favor of the Soviets during the 4 games held in Moscow.The exasperation of the Canadian team to the refereeing factored into some of the retaliatory behavior.The game began and charges of obvious favoritism by Kompala resurfaced quickly.The tying goal scored by Canada's Yvan Cournoyer was signaled as a goal on the ice but the goal judge persistently refused to put the goal light on, triggering the Eagleson incident