Team Serbia prevailed in IIHF World Championship Division III Group B with a game to spare in a double round-robin tournament in Tnuvot involving Israel and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Last year, in its debut appearance on the world stage, Serbia finished second behind Estonia ahead of the two other above-named newcomers. Estonia moved on to Division IIIA, just three teams remained in the group which predictably made the Serbians favorites. And this week’s action proved the prediction right.
It all started with a convincing – though not always straightforward – 5-1 win over Israel. After that, Ilija Cukovic’s team switched to another gear and victories became much more comprehensive. Beating Bosnia & Herzegovina 12-1 and Israel 9-0 Serbians put themselves in a pole position ahead of the final clash with Balkan neighbors.
Then came the time for gifts.
Ilija’s party
March 30th, Serbia head coach Cukovic was celebrating his 43rd birthday when goodnews from One Ice Arena reached the team’s hotel. Israel beat Bosnia & Herzegovina, meaning that Serbia would finish on top regardless of the last day’s result.
“It was amazing news, exactly what you’d want for a birthday present,” Cukovic recalls. “That’s what I told Israelis when they came back to the hotel. They didn’t know, of course, and obviously, they were happy for themselves but I still thanked them and we had a good laugh. We are good friends, after all.”
Thus, Ilija and his players could treat the final game as a lap of honor but by no means intended to. “It was a nice present but we never wanted any help. Our goal was to win all four games – and it remains the same,” he said before the last bow.
And that’s just what Serbia did wrapping the tournament with another double-digit victory, this time 11-0. This result may well be seen as a return favor to Israel as it insured the host team’s second-spot finish. Israel and Bosnia & Herzegovina exchanged wins and ended level on points with three, but head-to-head goal difference favored the hosts who lost 4-2 before taking a 4-1 revenge.
Individual honors went to goaltender Yael Fatiev (Israel), defender Amila Sose (Bosnia & Herzegovina), and forward Milica Velcek (Serbia). Her compatriot Valentine Vrhoci topped the scoring chart with 14 (10+4) points.
Nine goals were scored in the third period as the Philippines continued to show their dominance at the International Ice Hockey Federation Division 4 World Championships at the Steppe Arena in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
After winning a close game 7-6 in overtime over hosts Mongolia on Saturday night, they made another rout, this time against Kuwait, with a 14-0 victory on Sunday.
Forward Kenwrick Sze scored for the Filipinos 2 minutes, 41 seconds into the first period before the rest of the team dominated the Kuwaitis.
Later in the game, forward Carl Montano scored two goals in the second period before being among seven different forwards who tallied nine goals in the third period, earning him a hat trick. All his goals have been on the power play.
Former captain Steven Füglister and current captain Manvil Billones each had two goals in the third period. Füglister had a three-point game, while Billones had four points.
Forwards Jan Aro Regencia and Miguel Relampagos also had three points, each of them having a goal and two assists.
Other goal scorers of the game included forwards Mikel Sean Miller and Jorell Crisostomo in the second period, as well as Lenard Lancero 2nd and Carlo Tigaronita in the 3rd period
The Philippines outshot Kuwait 62-17.
Goaltender Paolo Spafford had also logged a shutout, after stopping all 17 Kuwaiti shots.
Finnish head coach Juhani Ijäs’ squad had also swept the tournament, winning all their games, and will be promoted to the IIHF Division 3B next year, joining Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Singapore and Iran.
Malaysia will be relegated to Division 4 after losing all their games in the divisional tournament in Sarajevo earlier this month.
Discussions have been under way for some time now in an effort to find dates and rinks to hold the event, the Jamaica Ice Hockey Federation said in a news release.
“The dates have now been set for June 8 to the 11th, with matches scheduled to be played each evening of the 8th, 9th and 10th,” the federation said, adding that the tournament venue will be announced by the end of this week.
According to the federation, the Jamaicans are very excited about being together on the ice again after the resounding success of their participation in the 2021 LATAM tournament. Now, the Hockey Operations Committee is working to ensure the availability of approximately 20 of the best players for the series.
The Jamaica Ice Hockey Federation has close to 80 players of Jamaican descent who are registered with it and who have been engaged over the last few months in anticipation of the announcement of playing opportunities.
Announcement of the Jamaica-Puerto Rico series has been met with positive responses from the core of the team that last played together in Fort Lauderdale in 2021 for the LATAM Cup.
“In that tournament Jamaica, as defending champions, played as an exhibition team as we were considered too strong for the opposing teams. The Jamaica team proved the organising committee correct by convincingly winning all six games, scoring 58 goals with seven against, beating Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Lebanon, and Venezuela,” the federation stated.
The federation said the matches in New York are expected to generate significant interest amongst the Jamaican Diaspora in the tri-state area and that there is a plan to engage all the civic, business and cultural organisations in an effort to whip up support for the team over that weekend.
Prior to the June matches Jamaica will be represented at the annual congress of the international federation scheduled for Tampere, Finland. This will coincide with the World Championship set for May 13 to 28.
This is the second World Championship that Jamaica ice hockey delegates will attend, the first being in Bratislava, Slovenia in 2019 when local Ice Hockey Federation President Don Anderson was on hand to watch those games and represent Jamaica. This year Jamaica will be represented by EJ Phillips, board member and accredited coach.
In July the second summer camp for local players will be held in Kingston. Last year 50 children between the ages of 10 and 14 were part of a week-long camp held under the auspices of the Government’s Institute of Sports, exposing them to the rudiments of ice hockey.
A new breed of ice hockey players emerged in Metulla on Thursday. Not only did they sport Stars of David on their fronts, but also ponytails on their backs. Israel’s national women’s ice hockey team held its first practice last week at the Canada Canter, alongside the men’s junior national team, for a special skills clinic led by Sean Skinner, an internationally acclaimed stickhandling master who came from Colorado for a week. Alan Maislin, chairman of the Israel Ice Hockey Federation, has recruited former NHL players Steve Dubinsky and Bill Jaffe to coach the national women’s team. Maislin and Sergei Matin, the Israel IHF president, also enlisted Dr. Esther Silver, who has extensive competitive hockey experience in Israel and in Canada, to help direct the program. Also on the front line is 19-year-old forward Lisa Horowitz, and her father, Wayne Horowitz, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Horowitzes have been instrumental in the local women’s league, which was established last year. Despite the relatively small number of women hockey players in Israel, Skinner thinks that the national women’s team can succeed. “It’s not about the number of players, it’s about the quality of training,” he said. “Russia, for example, has the least number of hockey players, but has the world’s strongest program.” With its first practice out of the way, the women’s team plans to make its debut at a tournament to be held at the Canada Center from January 24-26, and make its first International Ice Hockey Federation appearance in 2007. The national women’s team is in Division IV of the IIHF, alongside Iceland, New Zealand, and Romania. Dr. Silver hopes the team will provide a boost for the local women’s ice hockey program in the short term, by developing female coaches, trainers, on-ice officials and team managers, and down the road. “Within two years we hope to participate in the IIHF World Championships,” she said. “Our long term goal is to develop our Olympic team to represent Israel at the 2010 Winter Olympics.” Lisa Horowitz, who began as Israel’s first female ice hockey player and hopes to be one of the women who leads the national team to those Games, sets the goals for practices. Hopefully, “we’ll get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, what positions each of us play, and to work on skating and shooting,” she said. “I want to function as a team, and also to help improve each individual player.” The players, coaches and officials hope that the women’s ice hockey program will have a positive impact on Israeli women participating in sports and point out that women’s ice hockey is different than the men’s version. It is “a totally different game – it is a game of finesse and not brute strength,” explained Dr. Silver. “I believe we will be paving the way for female athletes to get involved in a sport that can showcase the unique aspects that women bring to [hockey], as well as promoting Israel and sports development in Israel… [and] that women play a major role in Israeli sports programs and also on the international stage.” While the national women’s ice hockey team is currently based at the Canada Center in Metulla, along with all of the Israel IHF programs, there are plans to build a new ice rink in the Tel Aviv area. The organization hopes to move its activities to the proposed facility, where it will be better located to offer ice hockey to a larger population of children and adults, which has increasingly taken up roller hockey. Skinner said that he believes these players can easily transfer their skills from the cement to the ice. For more information on women’s ice hockey in Israel, e-mail isrhockey@yahoo.com.
Hong Kong hockey players react to a protest song being A A song linked to the 2019 anti-government protests was played at an international ice hockey event last month.
A war of words between Hong Kong’s sports federation and the city’s ice hockey association deepened on Friday over a blunder last month when a protest song was once again played at an international tournament instead of China’s national anthem.
After the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China on Wednesday issued an ultimatum to the Ice Hockey Association’s management to come clean over its handling by Monday, the team’s leader hit back on Friday that it had already promised to respond by the deadline and was concerned by the body’s accusations of non-cooperation.
The blunder behind the fiery exchange occurred on February 28, when a song related to the 2019 ant-government protests played instead of “March of the Volunteers” after Hong Kong beat Iran at the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship’s third division in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ceremony was halted after Hong Kong athletes made a “T” shape with their hands, and the correct anthem was later played.
But the city’s sports federation on Friday said it was unclear whether the ice hockey team had provided organizers with a hard copy of the anthem, which could have prevented the blunder.
A federation insider said passing a hard copy to organizers should have been done face-to-face, based on guidelines issued last November by the city’s top sports body and international customs concerning playing national anthems at overseas sports events.
According to the source, association president Mike Kan Yeung-kit had said a copy of the anthem was given to the organisers but the information was not included in the group’s preliminary report on the incident.
The insider also accused Kan of being evasive when the federation sought to clarify the discrepancy.
The Post has contacted the association for comment.
The guidelines issued by the city’s sports federation require a team leader assigned by their respective association to give organisers a USB drive containing the correct music.
The drive could either be obtained from a toolkit provided by the federation or the anthem could be downloaded from the official website and saved to a hard copy.
Upon receiving the materials, organisers should provide confirmation by email, text message or a written note with an official signature.
Discussing last month’s blunder, a second federation insider said: “If the team leader did make an effort to [prevent the error] and the problem lies with the organiser, we would surely understand and accept it.”
“But in this case, we have not managed to meet [the association] in person and discuss it, and we cannot know the whole picture.”
Speaking in an independent capacity on Friday evening, ice hockey team leader Annie Kwan Yuen-yee said she was doing her best to work with the federation and police despite flying to South Africa for another tournament last Friday, just two days after returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The team leader said she had already provided a statement to police last Wednesday after the tournament wrapped up, before submitting a preliminary report two days later, and replying to text messages from the federation on Friday to acknowledge Monday’s deadline.
“The association and the athletes are troubled by the accusations of not being responsive, and that we could not explain ourselves due to insufficient time, which resulted in misunderstandings,” she said.
“This has affected our athletes and we are regretful that we only got the first and second runner-up positions in the tournament this time.”
The team earlier accused the sports federation of providing a problematic hyperlink for downloading the country’s anthem, which was passed to the organizers.
Team leader Kwan had said the organizers failed to download it and instead searched for a copy online without contacting the association, resulting in the error.
While she admitted to having a hard copy of the anthem, Kwan had made no mention of any attempts to pass it to the organizers.
After the Monday deadline, the federation said, it hoped to meet the management of the ice hockey association in person on Thursday to determine the facts and suggest fixes for any loopholes.
But the federation on Friday stopped short of saying how it might follow up with the team if it did not cooperate, reiterating that the sports body recognised the efforts of the athletes and did not wish to trade blame with the ice hockey association.
The federation was also speaking with the event organizers to learn more about how the anthem was passed to them, it added.
The Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association may be kicked out of the city’s sports federation and lose government funding after a preliminary investigation found it had failed to take the proper steps to ensure the Chinese national anthem was played at an international match.
In a report submitted to the government by the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, on Friday, the team was said to be “clearly not in compliance with the requirements” of the protocol for the playing of the national anthem at the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship Division III last week, when a song linked to the 2019 protests was used instead.
“[The committee], in conjunction with the respective department of the government, should consider implementing possible and appropriate sanctions against [the association],” it said.
Guidelines released last November stated sanctions could include suspension of membership in the National Sports Association under the committee and lose of subvention or funding from the government.
On Friday, the government said it would review the report and discuss follow-up action with the city’s sports federation.
The protocol was drafted hot on the heels of an embarrassing fiasco in which the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” was played instead of the “March of the Volunteers” at a rugby match in South Korea’s Incheon in November.
The new guidelines placed extra responsibilities on the team leader, including distributing a hard copy of the anthem and a city flag to the event organizer with an official confirmation before the game and checking with them at the venue.
But the protest song was played last Tuesday following the city team’s defeat of Iran in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The athletes made a “T” shape with their hands to point out the blunder, which is part of the requirements under the new protocol.
The report criticized the ice hockey club for failing to come clean on whether they had followed the requirements of the city’s sports federation, including passing on a hard copy of the anthem or obtaining a written confirmation of receipt from the organizer.
“Despite persistent questioning by [the committee], [the association] has been evasive and failed to address such questions … It is therefore strongly believed that [the association] did not perform their duty in accordance with the guidelines,” the committee said.
The report said that while the organizer, the International Ice Hockey Federation, had ignored the team leader’s request to check the national anthem would be used, they did not follow up the request. The representative should have made a “more robust request”, which could have stopped the incident from happening, it said.
The report said that while the organizer, the International Ice Hockey Federation, had ignored the team leader’s request to check the national anthem would be used, they did not follow up the request. The representative should have made a “more robust request”, which could have stopped the incident from happening, it said.
The report quoted Ji Ping, the Chinese ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who said International Ice Hockey Federation staff had “inadvertently” downloaded the wrong song.
The committee urged the event organizer to submit a report, which was to be sent by Friday.
The Hong Kong government “strongly deplored” the blunder and requested the local Olympic Committee conduct an in-depth investigation, while the organizer apologized for the incident.
Pui Kwan-kay, honorary vice-president of the city’s sports federation, had said it was the Hong Kong government’s responsibility to continue liaising with internet giant Google to ensure the Chinese national anthem was placed at the top of search results when the relevant key words were entered.
The Royal Spanish Federation of Ice Sports (RFEDH) has held this Friday the act of commemoration of the centenary of Spanish Ice Hockey (1923-2023) in the Samaranch Room of the Higher Sports Council (CSD).
The event was attended by the president of the RFEDH, Frank González; Alberto Serrano, vice president of the RFEDH and member of the Spanish team for the 1977 World Championships; Carlos Kubala, member of the Spanish team for the 1977 World Championships; Elena Álvarez, captain of the Spanish team and ice hockey member of the RFEDH; and Ander Alcaine, former ice hockey player, national team goalkeeper and professional in the Magnus League.
This centenary coincides with the date on which, in 1923, the tenth IIHF Annual Congress was held in Antwerp (Belgium), where Spain was accepted as a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Spain was represented at the congress by the diplomat, artist, film director and hockey player Edgar Neville, a figure who was present at the event through his grandson Edgar Neville.
Neville has shared a video in which he remembered his grandfather’s passion for ice. A message was also projected from Manel Puigbó, an illustrious player from the fifties and sixties, now 91 years old and one of the pioneers of hockey, in which he recalled the championships that were played in the Nuria Valley in the mid-fifties between Spanish teams and some international guests.
Carlos Kubala has stressed that he has “great friends” from that 1977 team. “We have been together for more than 50 years and we still meet from time to time to play for veterans,” he said. “We were happy with what little we had, they were tough starts but I am proud of what we achieved and I love seeing young people who continue to raise the level of ice hockey,” added Alberto Serrano.
Frank González, also a member of the first national team at the 1977 World Championships; in Copenhagen (Denmark), recalled that they had to bring exchange items with the Danes. “About 33 bottles of Licor 43 and cognac to get some material and equipment for our team instead,” he recalled.
For her part, Elena Álvarez has claimed that the level of women’s ice hockey “has improved a lot” from its creation to the present. “It seems like another sport. The Iberdrola League is made up of real athletes and more and more players are developing from the base,” she said.
Finally, Ander Alcaine has added that when it started they were high school kids traveling every two months. “We looked like professionals when we were barely 15 years old and from the EYOF in 2007 they began to work a lot with my generation and I was able to play professionally in France at the age of 19,” he said.
The event was also attended by the Madrid City Council Sports Director General, Alicia Martín, who congratulated the RFEDH on the centenary of ice hockey. “It is an honor for Madrid that these events culminate with the World Cup in Madrid. When the proposal came to us, it was a resounding yes because we want the city to be filled with ice hockey and this competition helps strengthen the grassroots sport.” Finally, the press conference closed with the intervention of Juan María Fernández Carnicer, Director of the CSD’s Cabinet, who thanked “all those present for their commitment, since without you none of this would have existed; and also their passion for move on,” he said.
The centenary celebration will continue in April during the Ice Hockey World Championship (Division II Group A), which will be held in Madrid from April 16 to 22 and with Spain aspiring to promotion.
The RFEDH has also exhibited a selection of historical shirts from different eras, together with an exhibition of centenary images based on a ‘falcon board’ model as a support, in line with the federation’s commitment to sustainability.
Kyrgyzstan won the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III Group B in emphatic style in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, to celebrate back-to-back gold medals.
Having finished top of the Division IV on home ice in Bishkek last season, Kyrgyzstan’s golden generation is currently on a roll. In Sarajevo the youngest team of the tournament took maximum points while scoring double-digits in each of their five games. Ruthless in front of the net, the Mikhail Chekanov coached Kyrgyz men’s national team left their opponents in their wake scoring 76 times and conceding on just five occasions.
“It was an awesome experience to represent your country and it means the world to play hockey with people you grew up with. We had a job to do when we came here and we did just that,” said Kyrgyzstan’s 20-year-old blueliner Ernazar Isamatov.
Kyrgyzstan had arrived in Bosnia & Herzegovina ready for the job at hand. A full month before touching down in Sarajevo, the Kyrgyz national team had been honing their skills at a training camp in Bishkek. The fruits of their labour in the Kyrgyz capital were clearly visible out on the ice in Division III Group B.
Brushing aside Singapore 14-2 in their opener, Kyrgyzstan then steamed ahead to beat hosts Bosnia & Herzegovina 10-1 before blanking Malaysia 22-0 and Iran 18-0. Needing a point in their final game against Hong Kong, China, which was ranked second before the final day of play, the Kyrgyz team did not disappoint winning 12-2 to secure gold and sweep the field with 15 points from five games.
Five Asian participating teams had travelled to the European hosts Bosnia & Herzegovina to compete at the Division III Group B in Sarajevo. To mark the occasion an ice rink had temporarily been installed inside the Skenderija Sports Arena. Ice hockey had last been played at this very venue during the 1984 Olympic Winter Games.
En route to their gold medals, Kyrgyzstan’s smallest margin of victory came during Day 2 against hosts Bosnia & Herzegovina, which eventually finished in second place.
Winning the shots against Bosnia 30-3 in the first period, Kyrgyzstan had to wait until 10:15 before team captain Kuzma Terentyev led by example to fire the Central Asians in front. Teenager Ersultan Mirbekov doubled their lead at 13:54. Despite a heroic performance in the Bosnian net by Dino Pasovic, top scorer Mamed Seifulov converted on a one-man advantage from a Anton Kudashov pass to add Kyrgyzstan’s third before the end of the first period.
“This was the only game where we changed our system to play total defensive hockey and try to make something from counterattacks. We had two-three good chances in the first period and made some mistakes when they scored, but Kyrgyzstan is simply better than us,” said Bosnia & Herzegovina head coach Uros Brestovac.
With the Bosnians trying to find a way into the game during the middle frame, instead, it was Kyrgyzstan’s first line and Vladimir Tonkikh scoring their fourth unanswered goal at 27:28. Only one position apart in the current IIHF World Ranking, but out on the ice gap was widening in Kyrgyzstan’s favour.
The on-song Seifulov added his second marker and Kyrgyzstan’s fifth at 35:27. Just 26 seconds later the puck was behind Pasovic once again as 18-year-old Sultan Ismanov converted on a Mirbekov feed. With 2:40 left of the middle frame, Alexander Petrov piled on the misery for the Bosnians with his 7-0 strike.
“After the second period I just told the players to continue working and fighting while sticking to our system and play their positions as it’s the only way to keep believing in the development of this team,” said Brestovac.
With the Bosnians on the power play, Mirza Omer finally got the tournament hosts on the scoreboard 3:17 into the third frame. The joy was however short-lived. 1:34 later World Championship debutant Seifulov potted his third of the evening to extend the Kyrgyz lead to 8-1. Blueliner Maxim Egorov added Kyrgyzstan’s ninth goal at 51:37 before the speedy Titov closed the scoring with his second of the evening as Kyrgyzstan hit double digits to complete a 10-1 win.
Kyrgyzstan’s Seifulov led the tournament with 28 points (18+10) in five games. He was followed by his linemate Islambek Abdyraev, who tallied 21 points (3+18) in five matches. Isamotov, selected by the tournament directorate as the top defender, explained the strong points of the Kyrgyz team.
“It’s the friendship and bond that we have. We are ready to do anything for each other. So it’s not just about hockey, but also how we treat each other,” he said.
Undefeated en route to the gold medals in Division IV on home ice last spring and now again winning gold with a perfect record in Division IIIB, the question is how much further this Kyrgyz team can continue to rise.
“Only the future will tell, but if you believe in what you do and keep working hard, you can do anything to be honest,” said Isamotov.
Teams pose together for a joint team photo after the closing ceremony of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III Group B.
Bosnia & Herzegovina bags silver in front of their home crowd
Hosts Bosnia & Herzegovina rose to the occasion inside the Skenderija Sports Arena to win their first ever silver medal at an IIHF World Championship event. They quite possibly also played their best game since becoming an IIHF member on 10 May 2001.
The 8-2 win against fourth-placed Singapore on Friday night was when things fell into place. In front of a vocal home crowd of 850, Bosnia & Herzegovina had run away with a 6-0 lead after 38:11.
“This was the deciding game for us whether we were going to be second or fourth. I’ve been coaching this team since 2019, but in the five-six years before that, I knew everything about them. In my personal opinion the win against Singapore is the best game they played and the one I am most proud of,” said head coach Brestovac.
Bosnia & Herzegovina’s opening game against Hong Kong, China was also another memorable game setting the tone for the rest of the tournament. Trailing 3-5 after two periods, the Bosnians launched a fightback. Nikko Gakovic had pulled one back at 53:41 and with the hosts piling forward in a nervy finish, Adnan Mlivic scored the game-tying goal with only 13 seconds left of the third period.
With the momentum now with the hosts and the game being decided by penalty shots, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s top scorer Omer and then Haris Mrkva scored for Bosnia. Then up stepped 51-year-old blueliner Anthony London to became the unlikely hero. Going eye for eye against a fellow veteran, 50-year-old Keung Emerson Kwokway in the net of Hong Kong, China, London converted his game-winning penalty shot to the joy of the 800 inside the Skenderija Sports Arena.
“We basically grew in the system we wanted to play from the first game to the last. During our first game against Hong Kong, China we didn’t believe totally in the system that we wanted to play, but for each game the boys grew in self-confidence,” said head coach Brestovac.
Dino Pasovic was voted the best goalkeeper of the tournament by the directorate while Omer came third in scoring tallying 20 points (11+9) in five games.
Winning bronze last year and now silver, who knows what might lie in store for Bosnia & Herzegovina come next season?
Hong Kong, China claims historical bronze medal
Hong Kong, China entered the final round of games against the seemingly invincible Kyrgyzstan with a theoretic possibility to win gold. In the end, the Hong Kongers finished a fine third. It is their first medal at a World Championship tournament since entering in 1987. Arriving late to Sarajevo and without a chance to practise together, the end result delighted head coach Nikita Smirnov.
“We still have a lot to improve. Many of the younger players don’t have a lot of experience and played for the first time in such a tournament. But we fought in every game and it was a very good experience for us,” said Smirnov.
Hong Kong, China was led brilliantly in the offence by Chung Pan Justin Cheng scoring 20 points (8+12) in five games and was voted the top forward of the tournament by the directorate.
Singapore, which showed flashes of brilliance, finished fourth. Last season’s silver medalists in Division IV, Iran, won their opener in Sarajevo against Malaysia 14-4 before losing steam to lose all of their remaining games to finish fifth. Winless Malaysia battled valiantly in each of their five games to finish bottom.
On Feb. 26, Slovak ice hockey player Nela Lopušanová celebrated her 15th birthday in perhaps the most fitting way for the young star: scoring a jaw-dropping 19 points in one game.
Lopušanová’s 10 goals and 9 assists in that game contributed heavily to her team’s (Vlci Žilina) 24-1 win over HC Košice in the top Slovak women’s league, Extraliga žien. Following this win, the young star now has 28 goals and 21 assists in 8 games, placing her fourth in the league in scoring while having played half as many goals as those with more points than her.
First drawing international attention in January of this year, a then-14-year-old Lopušanová scored a Michigan, or lacrosse-style goal – a goal scored by lifting the puck on one’s stick and shooting into a top corner of the net from behind – to tie the quarter-final game between Slovakia and Sweden at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championships. She was also named the tournament MVP, leading all skaters at the event with 12 points.
Besides playing in the Extraliga and internationally, Lopušanová plays for the men’s under-16 (U-16) league, where she is first in points per game and thus far has scored 43 points in 13 games. Her success playing against both girls older than her and boys her same age would seem to quell any accusations that the outstanding numbers she is putting up can only be attributed to the relative ability of the players around her, which detractors of women’s hockey are wont to purport.
With her current skill level, Lopušanová’s future superstardom seems inevitable as she shows no signs of slowing down. Being just 15, she has a few more years of eligibility at the U-18 level before the all-but-inevitable event that she will be given the opportunity to play for Slovakia’s senior national team; Lopušanová must wait at least one more year before she would be eligible.
What makes Lopušanová even more impressive is the fact that she is an elite player in multiple sports. Picking up figure skating at age two before becoming an ice hockey player, she also plays soccer and is a member of Slovakia’s national women’s ball hockey team.
Nela Lopušanová not only has the opportunity to revolutionize women’s hockey, which still faces derision as well as a lack of funding and support, but also to be the “next face of hockey,” per Jesse Pollock of TSN. As current women’s hockey icons, like Olympians Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel, are nearing retirement age for the sport, and rising stars, including Jesse Compher and Abby Roque, are stepping up, Lopušanová may have the opportunity in a few years to serve as an ambassador for a new generation of elite women’s hockey. While the future of women’s hockey can be a heavy expectation for a young girl to carry, Lopušanová stays focused. Her personal philosophy is to take her sport one day at a time and not concern herself too much with what the future holds.
Despite her amazing numbers and plethora of highlight reel-worthy goals, this young player gets relatively little media coverage for someone of her calibere. Few major English-language sports outlets are covering her trajectory, even the recent 19-point game. In general, women’s sports are regarded as inherently lesser than men’s, but even when men’s sports are considered to be the default, Lopušanová excels. “I want to make girls’ hockey more visible to the world,” she says;, and if her current level of play is anything to go by, then she certainly has the capacity to do so.
With all eyes currently on Connor Bedard, perhaps in a few short years Nela Lopušanová will be the most talked-about name in not just women’s hockey, but in the sport as a whole.
At a summit in Toronto this past January, in front of a crowd of 400, the non-profit organization the Carnegie Initiativeannouncedthat it was partnering with Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) to conduct a study on how to establish the first professional hockey franchise led by First Nations owners.
The Carnegie Initiative, which is named after Herb Carnegie, a black hockey star in the 1940s and 50s who spent much of his life fighting for equality in the sport, aims to make hockey more diverse and inclusive. This was the organization’s second annual summit.
The study referred to as The Spirit Project is being led by TMU professors Richard Norman and Cheri L. Bradish. According to Norman, the study will involve undergraduate students connecting with stakeholders, such as Ted Nolan, a former NHL star, a Carnegie Initiative board member, and a member of the Ojibway tribe. The stakeholders will provide the students with a broader knowledge of the current hockey landscape and First Nations culture. Using this information and their own research, students will develop a viable plan for creating a First Nations-led hockey franchise. The plans will be presented to the Carnegie Initiative in April.
“It’s not necessarily looking at playing at the NHL level,” Norman says. “Although, I think down the road, there’s always the possibility of an expansion franchise. But really, what I think it’s looking at is multiple leagues, men’s and women’s, and also how this might play out on the international side.”
First Nations have a long history with hockey. According to the nonprofit organizationNative Hockey, Europeans first observed ice hockey being played by Mi’kmaq Indians in Nova Scotia in the late 1600s, using a frozen apple as a puck.
Fred Sasakamoose from Saskatchewan was the first Native player in the NHL, lacing up for the Chicago Blackhawks in the mid-1950s. He was followed by other great players, including Theo Fleury and Carey Price.
One of the goals of The Spirit Project, which will be carried on by graduate students after the April presentations, is to see whether an Indigenous team could play as its own nation on the international stage. “There are examples around the world, like Maori nations playing rugby as a separate entity from New Zealand,” Norman says. This could include men’s and women’s First Nations teams squaring off against Canada in the Olympics.
The international stage, however, may still be a few years off. In the short term, Norman says he hopes the study will provide grassroots initiatives to help connect First Nations youth to hockey. “The professional franchise would act as a conduit so that there’s representation from the front office to the coaching staff to everywhere, showing how Indigenous folks can be connected with the game and the different aspects of how that comes together,” he says. “Then also looking at on-ice and off-ice activities for indigenous youth to help their skills and development throughout the process.”
To support these initiatives, students will look at travel time to games, how to create leagues that provide different levels of play, and what the development of the sport, in terms of social change, looks like for First Nations youth.
“Looking into the future, there are going to be tensions,” Norman says. “But if we’re looking at true reconciliation and the decolonizing of our sports systems, and what that looks like, I think it does ask those deeper questions of what does nationhood look like, and what is sovereignty going to mean within the Canadian context.”
