World Ice Hockey 5's Update

The tournament was over on Sunday.  It is now a relief to be back to a relatively normal schedule although I had a great time playing hockey.  The women on the Wendigos were a lot of fun---everyone worked hard and our team really great a lot during the tournament.  Considering no one really had any expectations for our team going into the 5's, we did really well.  We lost 0-7 to the WIHO Selects, beat the Macau Marauders 4-0 and 4-0 again and then played the Macau East Asian AllStars in the Quarter Finals.  We actually won that game 2-0 and made it to the Semi's where we lost to the (Japan) Red Bullets 0-6.  However, we were 0-0 after the first period which was unbelievable. It was also unbelievable that we had to play at 6 am.  I think the Japanese team had a big night before our game---several of their team were laying horizontally, fully dressed, with eyes closed before the game. 

The other Hong Kong team, the WIHO (Women's Ice Hockey Organization) Selects had a problem---their goalie injured a ligament in her foot while at school on the Friday of the tournament.  WIHO ended up using a male goalie in their game against the Manila Ice Vixens (interesting name!).  The Manila team agreed to let the goalie play (he was the younger cousin of one of the WIHO players) and later protested his presence after the game which was completely silly as the final score was 1-12! 

Here's the other side of the story from Kae of the Manila Ice Vixens:   

"Hi! I stumbled upon your blog and read this article. I'm from the Manila Ice Vixens...I'd like to explain the turmoil of events that day.

We weren't informed the goalie was a boy. One of my teammates chatted with somebody from WIHO and told her about it. That's the only time that we knew about it.Otherwise nobody from the higher ups notified us about it. So the rest of my teammates, before the game started we attempted to talk to the referees but they (the referees) told us that the goalie was a girl and that he knew that goalie. So we couldn't do anything.

After the game that's when it was blatantly exposed to us that indeed the goalie was a boy. So my teammates kind of protested because we did try to tell the referee about it before the game.

Sorry for the confusion. I hope this clarifies things for our team ^_^" 

Thanks for your comment, Kae.  I can now understand why your team protested the game.

I was asked to play for the WIHO's in the final game against Japan.  (Adrienne Li, a WIHO defenseman who occasionally plays goalie, did so in their semi-final match against Malaysia.) 

When I arrived at the rink on Sunday, Keith (one of the AsiaSports guys) came up to me and gave me a trophy from the awards ceremony the night before.  Evidently I had been chosen as best goalie in the women's division.  Claire was thrilled when I showed her the trophy.  It's made out of glass and looks impressive.  We played the Red Bullets and they were very physical.  They kept beating us in the neutral zone.  The game was tied 0-0 at the end of the third period.  In OT, we managed to get into their zone and had a shot or two on net.  Adrienne Li then got control of the puck and scored a beautiful goal.  It was an exciting end to the game.  (And Claire was impressed with our gold medals---she wore mine to school yesterday.)

Comments

[kae from Manila Ice Vixens ^_^]

Hi! I stumbled upon your blog and read this article. I'm from the Manila Ice Vixens...I'd like to explain the turmoil of events that day.

We weren't informed the goalie was a boy. One of my teammates chatted with somebody from WIHO and told her about it. That's the only time that we knew about it.Otherwise nobody from the higher ups notified us about it. So the rest of my teammates, before the game started we attempted to talk to the referees but they (the referees) told us that the goalie was a girl and that he knew that goalie. So we couldn't do anything.

After the game that's when it was blatantly exposed to us that indeed the goalie was a boy. So my teammates kind of protested because we did try to tell the referee about it before the game.

Sorry for the confusion. I hope this clarifies things for our team ^_^

[Kirst Afloat]

Thanks, Kae. Obviously I was misinformed. I would have felt upset by the events in your position as well.