Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The game they had to win - SA vs Romania
"Non negotiable" says Edge during a team meeting with the team in Iceland prior to their 2nd game against Romania.
With the first period getting underway and simply too many penalties x'd with the luck of the draw, SA went down by 2 goals both scored while short-handed. "Goalie saved our asses" says Samantha Jansen via a facebook interview.
The 2nd period was slightly better for the national team as they cut the Romanians scoring ability in half with only 1 goal hitting the back of the net, but it was not over.... 3rd period would say "hello" to SA's first goal of the tournament so far with Donne Oxenham sniping the puck past the Romanian "siv" and bringing them back within 2.
However their comeback attempt was too short notice and the game came to an end 3-1.
With the first period getting underway and simply too many penalties x'd with the luck of the draw, SA went down by 2 goals both scored while short-handed. "Goalie saved our asses" says Samantha Jansen via a facebook interview.
The 2nd period was slightly better for the national team as they cut the Romanians scoring ability in half with only 1 goal hitting the back of the net, but it was not over.... 3rd period would say "hello" to SA's first goal of the tournament so far with Donne Oxenham sniping the puck past the Romanian "siv" and bringing them back within 2.
However their comeback attempt was too short notice and the game came to an end 3-1.
To view these and more pics click here http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/ww-iv/pictures/page/0/game/ROU%20-%20RSA.html
Monday, March 28, 2011
Korea 6 - 0 SA Ladies
Yesterday, Sunday the SA ladies took to the ice for their opening game against the competition favorites, Korea.This fast skating team seemed rather dashing during their morning practice and had the SA spectators looking rather puzzled and worried but what was to be, although not a fairy tale ending but far from what was expected.
The game faced-off at 18:30 (our time as they are 2 hours behind in Iceland) with the first period not as bad as expected but Korea taking a dominant lead with 3 goals and no replies. However dominating the SA net, net-minder Shaylene Swanepoel managed to reject 22 of their 25 shots.
The 2nd period was an eye-opener for the Korean team as SA managed to keep them at bay and with 7 shots on the Korean net lifted the spirits of the SA ladies even more. Jadi Wessells, Delene Rhode and Sabrina Bundock each put 4 shots on net however scoring none. 2nd period was score-less.
3rd period was similar to the first with a 3 goal scoreline from the Koreans but with SA obtaining scoring opportunities. Korea only out-shot SA with 15-10 but were victorious at the final buzzer winning 6-0.
The SA ladies will be playing in their 2nd game against Romania today (Monday) at 6:30pm (SA time)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
SA Ladies face off today
Public can keep track of the game via the iihf website at www.iihf.com
Pictures added below of the arena in Iceland:
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Saturday, March 26, 2011
SA Ladies take to Iceland
Golden locks flow from underneath a grid' helmet while practicing their power-plays at the Grand West Arena this past week and spectators admiring the team in their final preparation for their IIHF Div4 tournament taking place in Iceland this March.
This camp, the last of many took place in Cape Town with the entire team taking part in on-ice, off-ice, team building and fundraising activities prior to their departure on Thursday this week. Their trip was a 2 day experience from CPT - JHB - Paris - Iceland.
Arriving 2 days before the commencement of the tournament which begins on Sunday 27 March, the SA Ladies will be facing off in their opening game against Korea. They then play Romania on Monday, Iceland on Wednesday and their final game against New Zealand on Thursday.
The tournament is played as a Round-Robin and all the information can be found on the IIHF official tournament page here: http://www.iihf.com/channels1011/ww-iv/statistics.html
We wish our ladies the best of luck.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
SA u18 return with the bronze
The South African under 18 team returns from Mexico where they finished 3rd out of the 5 team tournament and were awarded the bronze medal at the closing ceremony.
Jack Nebe was awarded the goaltender of the tournament with outstanding play during the competition.
Under 18 players, Uthman Samaai and Luke Carlse will be making it home just in time to join Team SA as they commence their 3rd training camp prior to the IIHF Mens Div3 World Championships.
Well done to SA u18's for their performance.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Iceland promoted to DivII.
In the final day of the championships team SA pulled together and scraped through with a nail-biting 3-2 win over Israel, however with 2 losses under their belt they will be once again playing in Div3 next year.
On the other side of the ice, the Iceland team beat Mexico 4-3 to take the gold medal and are being promoted to Div2.
We welcome the team back home and look forward to the upcoming championships taking place in 3 weeks time in Cape Town.
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SA downed by Iceland
What started with a great showcase and a 13-1 win over Ireland has turned sour as SA u18 lost last night to Iceland 14-2.
The first period looked promising as they ended it 3-1, but 2nd period Iceland steamrolled 7 goals and in the final period an additional 4 with SA's reply only with 1 to end the game in Icelands favour.
SA's next game is against Israel, we wish them the best of luck!
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Thursday, March 17, 2011
U18 update
The u18 national team is currently in Mexico City and they got off to a great start in their opening game against Ireland.
The score-line was (0-4, 1-5, 0-4) with SA ending off with a 13-1 win. A great win and looking forward to their next game against tournament favourites, Mexico.
With Mexico also scoring a 12 goal victory over Ireland, this looked good for the SA team, but before green and gold could be waved Mexico were leading 2-1 at the end of the first period.
The next two periods were a 3-0 a piece and ended the game 8-1 in favour of the Mexican team.
SA's next game is on Friday and they will be playing against Iceland who won their last game 22-0 against Ireland.
Good luck boys!
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Goalies finalised
The coaching staff have chosen the final 2 goaltenders to mind the net for the senior national team.
Congrats to David Burger and Ashley Bock as their appointment was made officially by SAIHA President Shane Marsh earlier this week.
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Saturday, March 12, 2011
Day 2
With 6 hours of driving and wrong turns leading us on sight seeing tours our first day of training came to and end.
2 x 90 minute sessions took place in the afternoon and late evening. The effort thus far has been satisfactory and minor injuries all round but nothing to write home about.
Getting to bed at 2am after off the ice at midnight saw a group of rather eager players arrive ready for training at 8 this morning for our first of 3 sessions today.
At present all players are resting in their cabins and prepping for the fitness session for today.
Back soon...
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
On the road again...
11 from Cape Town are on their way to the cpt international airport for the 2nd of 4 team sa training camps.
The camp is taking place in Vaal at the newly re-opened ice rink and the team will be staying at the Emerald Casino.
More updates to come!
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From the coach's mouth... u18 team on their way
So the final journey of the U18's has begun.
The players have arrived here in high spirits and are raring to go. I think though that the anticipation is absolutely killing them and just by judging by some of the antics and conversation the players just want the tournament to start already.
Our time here has been spent working on exiting our zone under control, power play, PK and almost a full practice of work with focus on defenceman. So far we are looking strong but as you know the work is never done and you always feel like you can do more.
Macky has provided great support to me and has given me some ideas and different angles from which to come at. We played a game last night and lost 6-4. I played everyone and juggled some of the positions around the already settled combinations.
Jack played against us and made some good saves. The other team was made up of veterans like Nick Beukes, Glen Lazarus, recently announced 2nd Div players Jacques Booysen, Joe Olivier and a decent Premier League line of U25 players. The team played alright with some real positives to draw on however we need to be more patient on the puck and work on our anticipation of the backcheck.
What was awesome was pulling the goalie with a minute to go, explaining a powerplay setup and watching Uthman, Luke and Nick Kuhn pull it off to perfection. Uthman scored a beauty of a net drive goal too. Our man of the match was Andre Visser from Pretoria who played very well on D and certainly punched above his class showing bravery and some smart defensive plays.
This morning we worked on our neutral zone play and tonight we work on defensive zone coverage, the most important facet for me.
I feel that after the warm up game in Mexico we will be ready to go. The players recovery time is also worth noting and a big shout out should go to Ballistix fitness for the work they have done helping prepare our players. Naturally the hard on ice skating has also put the players in good stead so we must note the hard work of everyone involved.
by Andre Marais
The players have arrived here in high spirits and are raring to go. I think though that the anticipation is absolutely killing them and just by judging by some of the antics and conversation the players just want the tournament to start already.
Our time here has been spent working on exiting our zone under control, power play, PK and almost a full practice of work with focus on defenceman. So far we are looking strong but as you know the work is never done and you always feel like you can do more.
Macky has provided great support to me and has given me some ideas and different angles from which to come at. We played a game last night and lost 6-4. I played everyone and juggled some of the positions around the already settled combinations.
Jack played against us and made some good saves. The other team was made up of veterans like Nick Beukes, Glen Lazarus, recently announced 2nd Div players Jacques Booysen, Joe Olivier and a decent Premier League line of U25 players. The team played alright with some real positives to draw on however we need to be more patient on the puck and work on our anticipation of the backcheck.
What was awesome was pulling the goalie with a minute to go, explaining a powerplay setup and watching Uthman, Luke and Nick Kuhn pull it off to perfection. Uthman scored a beauty of a net drive goal too. Our man of the match was Andre Visser from Pretoria who played very well on D and certainly punched above his class showing bravery and some smart defensive plays.
This morning we worked on our neutral zone play and tonight we work on defensive zone coverage, the most important facet for me.
I feel that after the warm up game in Mexico we will be ready to go. The players recovery time is also worth noting and a big shout out should go to Ballistix fitness for the work they have done helping prepare our players. Naturally the hard on ice skating has also put the players in good stead so we must note the hard work of everyone involved.
by Andre Marais
Friday, March 4, 2011
SA u18 leaving soon for Mexico
Saturday 5th March will see the Cape Town based U18 players leave for Jhb where they will join the rest of the team in the final preparation before departing for Mexico City next week.
As part of their final preparation the u18 team will be playing a warm up game against the WildCats and then will also be playing against a Mexican u20 team on arrival.
This u18 team, although young with a couple players from last years team illegible due to age, the likes of Captain Chad Williams and defensive pairing Jade Johnson will see to it that their net is untouched with the other end of the ice being man-handled by Uthman Samaai and Luke Carlse.
Uthman and Luke are additionally in the line-up for the senior national team and will be using this tour to show what they are made of and put a couple pucks in the back of the opposition's net.
Cape Town's goaltender Jack Nebe will be looking at shut-outs to ensure his team's victory and weighing the plane down on the return flight with gold medals all-round.
Thankfully the team is traveling to another part of Mexico this year, as last year they ended up in a gun-fight between Mexico law enforcement and the local drug cartel.
What should be an awesome experience with seeing another country, great hockey, the Aztec pyramids, Burger King, foreign skate shops, Burger King, Dodge Ram Trucks, Burger King and a rather over populated city estimated at 6 Mexicans per square meter...
Sadly this part of Mexico is nowhere near cancun and there are no tumble-weeds strolling down the sidewalk, the Rolex's that are for sale at the market next to the rink for 20 Pesos sadly are not real and neither are the sunglasses, but the experience is all worth it!
Ps. Don't eat the chili's... They don't kid around.
Good luck Team SA.
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As part of their final preparation the u18 team will be playing a warm up game against the WildCats and then will also be playing against a Mexican u20 team on arrival.
This u18 team, although young with a couple players from last years team illegible due to age, the likes of Captain Chad Williams and defensive pairing Jade Johnson will see to it that their net is untouched with the other end of the ice being man-handled by Uthman Samaai and Luke Carlse.
Uthman and Luke are additionally in the line-up for the senior national team and will be using this tour to show what they are made of and put a couple pucks in the back of the opposition's net.
Cape Town's goaltender Jack Nebe will be looking at shut-outs to ensure his team's victory and weighing the plane down on the return flight with gold medals all-round.
Thankfully the team is traveling to another part of Mexico this year, as last year they ended up in a gun-fight between Mexico law enforcement and the local drug cartel.
What should be an awesome experience with seeing another country, great hockey, the Aztec pyramids, Burger King, foreign skate shops, Burger King, Dodge Ram Trucks, Burger King and a rather over populated city estimated at 6 Mexicans per square meter...
Sadly this part of Mexico is nowhere near cancun and there are no tumble-weeds strolling down the sidewalk, the Rolex's that are for sale at the market next to the rink for 20 Pesos sadly are not real and neither are the sunglasses, but the experience is all worth it!
Ps. Don't eat the chili's... They don't kid around.
Good luck Team SA.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Tuesday night fitness
A cross between Redbull Crashed Ice and a speed skating was on the agenda for Tuesday nights fitness session.
After the first lap, players were feeling it and with many more to go it made for an interesting night of skating.
The dividing barriers were used to mark out a drivers-course consisting of tight turns, tricky corners and full speed straights. Players didn't know what to expect until smiles on faces all round after their first lap.
With heats taking place that represented hockey shifts and groups divided into 5 players per heat, this gave players ample time to rest in between races.
With fun and games out of the way the final race took place with all 18 skaters fighting for the front spot. A rather and entertaining and comical view from the stands as skaters were pushing, shoving and trying F1 tricks to try and pass guys infront of them.
Definitely a keeper, says all the guys as their legs were absolutely buggered after a good couple heats.
Overall a good drill, even bringing back so much fun to a strenuous for all players while working on everyones agility, endurance, sharp turns, speed and acceleration.
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After the first lap, players were feeling it and with many more to go it made for an interesting night of skating.
The dividing barriers were used to mark out a drivers-course consisting of tight turns, tricky corners and full speed straights. Players didn't know what to expect until smiles on faces all round after their first lap.
With heats taking place that represented hockey shifts and groups divided into 5 players per heat, this gave players ample time to rest in between races.
With fun and games out of the way the final race took place with all 18 skaters fighting for the front spot. A rather and entertaining and comical view from the stands as skaters were pushing, shoving and trying F1 tricks to try and pass guys infront of them.
Definitely a keeper, says all the guys as their legs were absolutely buggered after a good couple heats.
Overall a good drill, even bringing back so much fun to a strenuous for all players while working on everyones agility, endurance, sharp turns, speed and acceleration.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom
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