| Friday, 09 April 2010 18:28 |
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Continental Cup winner also succeeds on home ice
SALZBURG, Austria – After one year in Klagenfurt, Austrian championship trophy goes back to Red Bull Salzburg. It’s the third title for the Dietrich Mateschitz-backed club after the wins in 2007 and 2008. Salzburg won the final series vs. Linz in six games.
Salzburg, which also won the 2010 IIHF Continental Cup in January, finished the regular season in second place but took advantage of regular season winner Graz 99ers’ elimination in the quarterfinals by Croatian Medvescak Zagreb.
Salzburg also had its toughest series in the quarterfinals edging last year’s champions KAC Klagenfurt in seven tight games. In the semi-finals, Salzburg defeated Medvescak Zagreb, 4-1, before meeting fourth-seeded Black Wings Linz in the final series.
Linz eliminated third-ranked Vienna Capitals in seven games in the semi-finals. Linz also took the lead in the finals against Salzburg (winning the first two games 3-2 and 6-4), but Salzburg turned the series around with four victories: 6-3, 3-2, 3-2 and 4-3. The last game was the only game that went into overtime and it even needed two sudden-death periods to decide the champion.
The longest game in the history of the league ended with Doug Lynch’s goal at 82:27. It was not the only record. The total attendance 1,052,909 (+16%). Also the capacity utilization increased, from 71% to 75.6%.
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| Friday, 09 April 2010 18:25 |
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Controversy between coach and QMJHL player
MOSCOW – The Russian Hockey Federation announced its roster for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championship that begins on Tuesday in Minsk and Bobruisk, Belarus.
With the exception of Roman Berdnikov, who plays in Canada for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack, the roster is composed of players from Russian teams.
Another player from Canada has been removed from the camp by head coach Mikhail Vasiliev due to lack of discipline: Kirill Kabanov, who is seen as one of the brightest Russian talents from 1992.
“I removed him from the team because we thought Kabanov would help us, but he brought only confusion to the team,” Vasiliev told Sovietsky Sport. “Kabanov came and thought ‘Here I am, a star from Canada, who will save all.’ But it’s the team that wins rather than an individual player.”
The forwards of the Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL) was ranked 15th in the NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Ranking of skaters playing in North America, but fell down to 31st in the final ranking that was published this week.
After Kabanov’s expulsion, Evgeni Kuznetsov is the only returnee to the team. The winger played 39 KHL games for Traktor Chelyabinsk this year, notching ten points (3+7). He will also be the only player to have represented Russia both in the World U20 and U18 Championships this year.
Russia won a medal in the last three World U18 Championships. They won the 2007 tournament in Tampere, Finland, and ended up with the silver in 2008 on home ice in Kazan and in 2009 in Fargo, United States.
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| Friday, 09 April 2010 18:21 |
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While women played Olympics, picture remains cloudy for men
In recent years, there has been considerable focus in the West on the development of hockey in the People’s Republic of China. While there have been some inroads made at the grassroots level of youth hockey, the overall results so far have been rather modest apart from the women’s team that qualified for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
The Chinese men's national team program has not yet reaped any noticeable dividends from the creation of Western-funded and directed teams in the Asia League. As of this season, the NHL’s San Jose Sharks are no longer involved with the Chinese entry in the Asia League. The long-term future of professional hockey in China is still very much up in the air, although the national federation has pledged to maintain participation in order to provide an outlet for the country’s best players to face the higher-grade competition offered by the Japanese and South Korean teams in the Asia League.
Internally, there are still only two viable development outlets (the teams in Qiqihar and Harbin) for young Chinese players, with Jiamusi and the Qianwei Sports Association struggling to compete even within domestic games. Earlier in 2009, Qiqihar swept the annual Chinese championships at the men’s, U20 and U18 levels. Qiqihar has now won five of the last six Chinese men’s championships.
It should be noted that the national U20 “season” consisted only of a single game, in which Qiqihar defeated Harbin by a 3-2 score. At the U18 level, the four teams played two games apiece. Clearly, this by itself is nowhere close to adequate game experience for young Chinese players to compete in IIHF-sanctioned junior championship tournaments.
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| Wednesday, 31 March 2010 13:59 |
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Profiling players from WW U18 Championship
Today’s incredible Japanese 3-1 victory over Finland was achieved in large part to goalie Shizuka Takahashi, who stopped 34 of 35 shots for her team. After the game she talked with IIHF.com about her life, her career – and her historic win.
How old were you when you first put on skates?
I was five years old when I first started skating.
Who is your hockey hero?
He is a Japanese player named Haruna. He plays for the national team and his club team is Oji Paper.
Why do you wear number 25?
The team gave it to me.
Do you have any superstitions?
One hour before the game I put an eye mask on and relax and stay cool.
Who is your best friend on the team?
All of my teammates are my friends.
How many brothers and sisters do you have?
I have one older brother who plays hockey on his university team.
What’s on your iPod?
I listen to a lot of Japanese music. My favourite group is called SID.
Facebook or SMS?
I prefer cellphone.
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| Wednesday, 31 March 2010 13:56 |
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Japanese "miracle on ice"; U.S., Canada, Germany also win
Japan-Finland 3-1 (2-0, 0-1, 1-0)
CHICAGO – For the first time in hockey history at any level, a team from Japan has defeated a team from Finland. Japan’s “kiseki” on ice – miracle, in English – came at the Bob Allen Arena at the World Women’s U18 Championship.
The victory was significant for two reasons. One, it means the Japanese finish in third place in Group A and advance to the quarterfinals. And two, it means the Czechs finish in last place and will now face Russia in a best-of-three Relegation Round series. One of these teams will be demoted for 2011.
The heroes tonight for the Japanese were Nodoka Abe, with two goals, and goalie Shizuka Takahashi, who stopped 34 of 35 Finnish shots.
Abe started the dream just 2:41 into the game on a power play, but it was the next goal, three and a half minutes later, that sent the Japanese bench into controlled celebration.
Nene Sugisawa dumped the puck in and headed to the bench on a routine line change, but Finnish goalie Susanna Airaksinen misjudged the puck and it blooped its way into the net for a shocking 2-0 Japan lead.
But the Japanese played a solid game and skated stride for stride with the bigger Finns. Even when Salla Rantanen got the Finns on the board early in the second period during a wild scramble in front of the Japanese net, there was no panic in Japan’s play and the team certainly wasn’t trying to sit on the lead.
They had a great chance to go up by two goals again late in the period with a 5-on-3 power play for 36 seconds, but they were unable to do so. But Abe got her second of the game early in the third, and the team played confidently the rest of the game.
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