China National Men’s Hockey Team – Page 3

A ban would be an embarrassing outcome for a country that’s spent millions trying to become a hockey powerhouse.

BY YVONNE LAU December 03, 2021 https://fortune.com

In the summer of 2015, the future of ice hockey in China looked promising.

The country had just won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing—a major coup for a nation not traditionally known for its winter sports prowess. And that June, Beijing-born Song Andong, a bright-eyed 18-year-old ambassador for the Chinese Olympic Committee, had become the first-ever Chinese player to be drafted into the U.S.’s National Hockey League (NHL).

In the months that followed, China embarked on a monumental push to expand the sport and develop an Olympics-worthy men’s ice hockey team by building ice rinks, promoting youth leagues, and hiring top foreign coaches. China even enlisted the help of the NHL to nurture a new generation of ice hockey fans in the country.

China’s Olympic organizers refitted two stadiums in downtown Beijing—the national indoor stadium and the Wukesong Sports Center, both of which were built for the 2008 Summer Games—to become the main venues for the Winter Games’ ice hockey events. The organizers flew in foreign ice rink experts to ensure the ice was just right—smoother, harder and colder than regular rinks and suitable for professional-level play.

But now, with the Beijing Winter Games only two months away, there’s a major hitch: the China men’s ice hockey team may not ever step a skate onto the Olympic ice.

On Monday, hockey’s international governing body, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), will decide whether or not to ban China’s national team from Olympic play due to “insufficient sporting standard.”

“Watching a team being beaten 15-0 is not good for anyone, not for China or for ice hockey,” then-IIHF president Luc Tardif told AFP in September.

In short, the team is potentially too bad to compete.

The IIHF Meet December 6 To Discuss China’s National Men’s Hockey Team 2022 Winter Olympics Participation

Red Star Dragons goalie Paris O’Brien makes save against Sibir

Kunlun Red Star 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 7 (0-2, 1-3, 0-2)

Sibir defeated Kunlun for the third time this season, recording a fourth straight victory and improving to 10 wins from its last 12 games. That upswing, which follows a slow start to the season for Andrei Martemyanov’s men, puts the Novosibirsk team level with Avangard on 42 points.

The IIHF, are set to meet December 6, to discuss China’s National Men’s Hockey Team participation in the Beijing Olympics, and the decision is expected to hinge on player eligibility rules and the performance of the Kunlun Red Star Dragons.

Red Star enjoyed a rare victory last time out, defeating Neftekhimik 2-1 as young goalie Paris O’Brien made a winning start to his KHL career. The Dragons also promoted some of their homegrown Chinese players to more prominent spots on the team and Ivano Zanatta continued with that approach here.

However, O’Brien found life tougher on his second appearance in this league. In-form Sibir created far more offense from the start and took full control of this game with two goals towards the end of the first period. Alexander Sharov opened the scoring with a well-placed backhand, then Nikita Shashkov doubled the lead barely one minute later.

Dragons Tyler Wong goes in on net for scoring chance

Red Star’s power play has been problematic this season, but early in the second period the home team needed just 12 seconds to parlay a minor penalty for Denis Golubev into a goal for Tyler Wong. However, at the very moment Golubev would have exited the box, if Sibir’s penalty kill had endured, he was on the ice make it 3-1.

Then O’Brien suffered a moment to forget when a Trevor Murphy point shot cannoned off the boards and bounced into the net off the luckless goalie’s pads. Murphy, a former Dragon, added a goal to his earlier assist.

As the second period drew to a close, Ethan Werek pulled one back for Kunlun but Michal Cajkovsky made it 5-2 seconds before the intermission.

The third period saw Sibir increase its lead. Vadim Kudako got his second of the season to make it 6-2 before Golubev’s second of the game confirmed the final scoreline.