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Sweden edges unified Korea

February 5, 2018, 4:36 am
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The first exhibition games in Korea have been played on Sunday. The unified Korean women’s national team lost 3-1 to Sweden, Canada blanked Switzerland 10-0.

It was a much anticipated game in Korea. The original team of 23 South Korean players were joined by 12 North Korean players in a gesture to use the Olympic Winter Games to stimulate more peaceful relations between the Koreas.

The unified team had on Sunday in Incheon near Seoul its first exhibition game against Sweden. Despite being ranked far away from Sweden in the IIHF Women’s World Ranking the Koreans managed to keep up and lost 3-1.

The game roster of 22 in the exhibition game included 18 players from the south while adding four players (forwards Su Hyon Jong, Song Hui Ryo, Un Hyang Kim, and defender Chung Gum Hwang) from the north of the divided Korean peninsula that is depictured on the new jerseys of the unified team.

A sell-out crowd of 3,000 came to the Seonhak ice rink in Incheon and had the biggest joy with 1:38 left in the opening frame when captain Jongah Park cut the Swedish lead with her 2-1 goal. The game had started with the teams’ anthems which in case of the unified Korean team is the centuries-old Korean folk song Arirang.

Previously Rebecca Stenberg had opened the scoring with 3:45 left in the first period followed by another marker from Hanna Olsson. Korean goalie So Jung Shin had previously frustrated the Swedes at several attempts.

With 20 seconds remaining in the first period Erika Grahm restored the two-goal lead and after scoreless 40 minutes the 3-1 score stayed until the end. Shots were 35-14 in Sweden’s favour.

Click here to watch a video from the game.

On the same day Canada blanked Switzerland 10-0 in another exhibition game. Blayre Turnbull, Natalie Spooner and Brigette Lacquette scored two goals apiece for the defending Olympic champion.

Two more exhibition games will be played on Tuesday between Switzerland and Finland, and between Sweden and the Olympic Athletes of Russia.

The teams will then gather up to the mountains for the opening ceremony on Friday. The 2018 Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament begins on Saturday. The men’s tournament begins four days later on 14th February.

Women’s exhibition games overview
Men’s exhibition games overview
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Sturm stays

February 5, 2018, 6:59 am
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The German Ice Hockey Association has extended the contract with men’s national team head coach and general manager Marco Sturm.

Prior to the start of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games Sturm has signed an agreement for the next four years until 2022 while the team is preparing for the Olympics in Fussen.

“It’s nice that it has worked out before the Olympics. Basically we’ve always been on the same wavelength. Now we want to continue the taken path. I still like the work a lot and I’m looking forward to the upcoming years because we have a lot of work ahead,” said Sturm.

The former NHLer has joined the German Ice Hockey Association in 2015. During the past two years he reached the World Championship quarter-finals twice and won the Olympic Qualification event to bring his team to PyeongChang 2018.
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Day Jobs

February 5, 2018, 2:21 pm
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Click on "more" to watch this video with Japanese women’s national team player Ami Nakamura. Click on the CC logo for subtitles in your language.
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Korean Hockey Magic

February 5, 2018, 3:16 pm
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Anyang Halla’s logo is a growling polar bear, but Korea’s oldest pro hockey club didn’t truly scare Japanese rivals till it won its first Asian title in 2010.

Leading up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, we’re looking back at some of the biggest developments in this sport in an ongoing series called “Korean Hockey Magic.”

To underscore how new Korea’s professional tradition is, Anyang Halla was only founded in 1994 – the same year the New York Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks for their first Stanley Cup since 1940 and Canada beat Finland for its first IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship since 1961. The club was originally named Mando Winia after a line of air conditioners manufactured by the industrial sponsor Halla Group and located in the Seoul suburb of Mok-dong.

They won five titles in the Korean Ice Hockey League, buoyed by the offensive wizardry of five-time MVP Eui Sik Shim, sometimes dubbed the “Korean Gretzky.” When that league went out of business in 2003, the Halla Group shifted its ice gladiators into the Asia League, becoming the lone Korean founding member along with four Japanese clubs.

It was re-named “Anyang Halla” in 2005. Anyang is a city of nearly 600,000 people just south of Seoul, and the team plays at the 1,284-capacity Anyang Ice Arena. But it took a while to get on track.

The Nippon Paper Cranes won the first Asia League championship in 2004, followed by back-to-back titles for Seibu Prince Rabbits in 2005 and 2006. The Paper Cranes triumphed again in 2007 and 2009, with the Oji Eagles winning the 2008 title. Would it ever be Korea's turn to celebrate?

Bill Meltzer neatly summed up the reasons for Japan’s pro dominance in a 2007 NHL.com article: “Within the context of Asian hockey, the Japanese easily have the most systematic organization, the strongest ability to maintain professionalized clubs, and the largest pool of players to draw from within the pockets where youth hockey is popular. The top Japanese clubs also have been able to recruit a higher grade of imported talent to their teams.”

Anyang Halla recruited quality Czech players in the early 2000s, including ex-Toronto Maple Leafs forward Zdenek Nedved and former Extraliga scoring leader Patrik Martinec, who today serves as the club’s head coach. But even with their help and the goal-scoring heroics of Dong Hwan Song, who topped the Asia League with 31 markers in 2005/06, Anyang Halla never did better than losing in the 2006 and 2009 semi-finals.

That is, until 2010. The club had started to add more Canadians, including defenceman Dustin Wood and forwards Brad Fast and Brock Radunske, and it paid off. Radunske, a towering Kitchener native who played three seasons for Michigan State, got the nickname “Canadian Big Beauty.” He would ultimately become Anyang Halla’s all-time leader in all offensive categories and games played, plus the first naturalized Canadian to suit up for the Korean national team in 2013.

Sidelined early in 2009/10 with a concussion, Radunske bounced back and peaked at the right time – in the playoffs. Anyang Halla knocked off Korean rivals High1 with a 3-1 semi-final series victory, and then faced the Paper Cranes in the best-of-five final. It went the distance, with playoff MVP Radunske scoring two overtime winners and setting up Woo Jae Kim for the sudden-death winner in Game Five. Anyang Halla had finally broken the Japanese monopoly.

Since that historic 2010 triumph, Anyang Halla has been a perennial Asia League contender, winning the title again in 2011, 2016, and 2017. While Canadian imports still play an important role, domestic talent has also been key: Kisung Kim was named league MVP in 2015, and Sang Wook Kim tied Matt Pope of the Tohoku Free Blades for the league lead in points (68) last season. It shows that after you win once, anything is possible.

LUCAS AYKROYD
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Immonen’s Mission

February 6, 2018, 12:00 am
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As the Champions Hockey League is coming to the end of its fourth season since its relaunch, one thing is clear: Swedish teams have dominated the tournament. All three champions have come from the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), with Lulea beating Frolunda in the first final, on home ice, and the Frolunda team then taking the trophy back to Gothenburg twice in a row.

While there will be a new champion this season, the Swedes still have a chance to extend their streak, thanks to Vaxjo Lakers run to the final. The only thing standing between them and the CHL title is Finnish JYP Jyvaskyla.

The Lakers, who have a 17-point lead in the SHL standings, can be considered a favourite, especially on home ice, where they haven’t lost a game this CHL season, but the Finns are no pushover, that much is obvious just by looking at Jyvaskyla’s road to the final. The Finns have advanced twice, despite having lost the second game.

In the semi-finals, the second game went to a shootout, after both teams had won their home games by 4-2. The Finns won the shootout, lost the game 4-3, which was enough to get them a ticket to Vaxjo. Veteran centre Jarkko Immonen scored one in regulation time and added the game-winner in the shootout.

“Our road to the final sure was special. I don’t remember having been in a situation before in which a loss has helped us advance in a tournament. We’ve played well at home but the away games have been tougher for us, I’m not sure why,” Immonen told IIHF.com.

“I think that since we’ve had the advantage in the goal difference after the first game, the other teams has had nothing to lose and they’ve played really offensive hockey. And we’ve played some pretty good teams,” he adds.

In the final, there is only game which may work in the Finns’ advantage. On the other hand, the game will be played on Vaxjo’s home ice, which may work in the Finns’ disadvantage.

Immonen, 35, is too experienced to worry about the Lakers’ home-ice advantage.

“I hope the arena is packed, it doesn’t really matter who the crowd is cheering for, as long as it’s loud,” he says.

The 2011 world champion, tournament leading scorer and its All-Star centre returned to Finland after almost a decade in the Swiss league and the KHL – where he won the Gagarin Cup in 2010 with Ak Bars Kazan.

“It’s been nice to be back home, the Finnish league is a good league, the hockey is fast-paced and fun,” he says.

While Immonen’s played CHL games with JYP and EV Zug in 2016 and 2017, he says he doesn’t know too much about Lakers – except for the team’s Finns, Tuomas Kiiskinen and Janne Pesonen, who was Immonen’s teammate in Kazan and the Finnish national team when they won the titles.

“I know they’re a great team and we’ll go over details before the final but at the same time, we’ll focus on our game and if we play the way we want to, we should be able to put up a fight,” says the modest Finn.

“I’d love for us to be the first Finnish team to win the Champions Hockey League title. The tournament has improved every year and it’s not easy to get to the final.”

Due to a hectic schedule in the Finnish league, JYP’s coaching staff took a drastic decision last week, and iced a junior-laden team in a Finnish league game against IFK Helsinki, to give the team’s veterans time to get ready for the CHL final.

“The CHL final is a big deal both for the team and for the organization financially, and we know how hard it is to get to the final so we don’t want to let this opportunity to slip through our fingers,” said coach Marko Virtanen.

Even if JYP wins, there’s probably not going to be a parade in Jyvaskyla, says Immonen.

“I’m afraid there won’t be time to do victory laps due to Finnish league schedule,” he says.

“But I’d rank a CHL title high on my list of achievements,” he adds.

RISTO PAKARINEN
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Coaching Symposium

February 6, 2018, 4:00 am
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For the first time ever the IIHF International Coaching Symposium will be held in Denmark, during the World Championship on 12-13 May in Copenhagen.

Tom Renney, Kevin McLaughlin, Olaf Eller, Kalle Väliaho, Tomas Monten and many more are among the speakers in Copenhagen. The first day will be about communication, feedback and technology, the second focus on athlete-centred coaching.
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Winberg seeks the unexpected

February 6, 2018, 5:30 am
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Not so long ago, Pernilla Winberg was making her debut at 16 years old at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

Winberg would score the winning goal in a shootout against Team USA in the semi-finals to give Sweden a silver medal. It was one of the biggest upsets in women’s hockey and still a source of great pride for Winberg.

“The Olympics is the biggest thing you can ever experience in women’s hockey,” said Winberg. “We succeeded there and it was crazy and the best thing I’ve ever experienced in hockey. That feeling was unreal. That’s why I keep playing because I want to reach that goal again.”

Almost 12 years since that magical day, Winberg has faithfully represented Sweden in major hockey tournaments of every kind. She’s gone from impressive rookie to battle-tested veteran, yet remains amazed at how much time has passed.

“Thinking back, it has been so many years ago but I still feel like I’m the same age that I was then but it was so long ago,” Winberg said. “It’s a weird feeling to have been in that position before but it is something that I want to do again with the group I’m with now because that is the best experience.”

The biggest test was the Four Nations Cup in November in Florida with the top nations but Sweden finished fourth. Despite losing in overtime in their final game to Finland, they did play exceptional defence and their ability to kill penalties served them well until it caught up with them. Finland scored the game winner on the power play in the extra frame.

The tournament didn’t start out as they would have wanted. Travelling across the Atlantic was fraught with problems and they did not get in until the middle of the night before their opening game against Canada.

“It was tough because there wasn’t a whole lot of time to rest,” Winberg said. “It affected us but we can’t use that as an excuse. You have to use the best of what you’ve got out there and compete. That’s what we tried to do in this tournament.”

Still, this was a learning experience in being able to go up against the teams that will ultimately be in the mix when the first puck is dropped in PyeongChang.

“USA and Canada are the best teams in the world and it is good for us to play against them,’ Winberg said of the competition. “They play different than European teams so it is important for us to come over and play them to see how they develop and what type of hockey they play before we play them in the Olympics again.”

Hard to believe that since 2006, Winberg has played in three Olympics and headed to her fourth. Sweden is in a period of transition. They will be missing two of their key contributors in Jenni Asserholt and Emma Eliasson. Still, Winberg remains optimistic.

“Most of us played together at the last World Championships so we know each other pretty well,” she said. “This year I think we came together really well. I’m really excited for this team to get into the Olympics. I think we have a strong team. It is about taking it one game at a time. Anything can happen and we will do our best. We are going into South Korea and hoping to do something unexpected.”

During the season, Winberg plays professionally in Sweden. The SDHL is becoming a league that women are turning to and more foreigners are finding it to be an attractive option to pursue their playing career.

“It is a really good league to play,” said Winberg of the SHDL. “Our league is tough and good. We are getting a lot of foreigners now so we have some of the best players in the world from other nations. There is a good standard in the league and it is growing.”

Turning 29 during the Olympics, Winberg is not close to winding down. There is still a drive to play and to excel at the elite stage in the sport. But she acknowledges the need to pay it forward and offer support for those who need it in the same way others did for her when she joined the national team. That support would be to help her teammates locate their confidence and raise their competition levels.

“I try to help the younger kids and if they ever need anything I am there for them,” she said. “When you are excited for something you play your best. That’s what I did when I was 16 because I obviously wanted to be the best every time I stepped out on the ice. It is important to have that mentality.”

Another priority would be to continue growing the game in her native country. While women’s hockey has established an important foothold, there is always room to continue its development, something that motivates Winberg just as much as competing at next year’s Olympics.

“I love hockey that is why I am still playing hockey but if I get the chance I would want to help grow the game even more in Sweden and get more kids to play. We don’t have that many girls playing so whatever I can do to get more girls playing and help some kids out I would love to do that.”

JOHN SANFUL
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JYP, they can!

February 6, 2018, 1:52 pm
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JYP Jyvaskyla skated onto the ice with the Scorpions’ “Like A Hurricane” blasting off the speakers - with a not-so-subtle reference to the team’s logo. Tonight, JYP wasn’t a huge hurricane, but it was big enough to leave devastated Lakers fans in its wake.

JYP beat Lakers 2-0 in the CHL final, with Joonas Nattinen scoring the game winner in the second period. Jussi Olkinuora made 31 saves en route to a shutout.

“I don’t think they had all too many great chances, though,” Olkinuora said.

The Jyvaskyla team is the first non-Swedish team to win the Champions Hockey League since its relaunch in 2014/15.

“This is such a great feeling, we’ve met great teams along the way and to stand here as the champions feels fantastic,” said centre Jarkko Immonen.

“We knew Lakers were a great team, but I think we defended really well tonight. It was a battle out there, but it was great,” he added.

The city of Vaxjo, the host of this season’s CHL final, was ready for the game already in the morning. Stores had “game day” flags outside, there were small Lakers flags on top of buses, and people were wearing their Lakers hats and scarves. The Lakers flag had even been raised at the former City Hall (now a hotel).

On the surface, Vaxjo and Jyvaskyla have several similarities. Both are university towns in the hearts of their countries. Both are surrounded by lakes – although, the lakes are bigger and there are more of them in Finland. Also, Jyvaskyla is a slightly bigger town, but all in all, the psychological distance between the cities is a short one.

On the ice, the teams were close as well, even though the Lakers controlled most of the game. Maybe JYP had the away game jitters, or maybe the loud Swedish crowd inside the sold-out arena intimidated them, but especially in the first period, it was the Lakers that had the game under control. The Swedes outshot the Finns 15-6 in the first period, and none of the Finns’ shots came from the real danger areas and Swedish Olympian Viktor Fasth had no problems turning them away.

In the second period, Vaxjo got a golden opportunity about halfway through the period when it got to play with a two-man advantage for over a minute. JYP’s penalty killers managed to keep the puck out of the net, and five minutes later, now with JYP on a powerplay, Nattinen carried the puck into the Lakers zone and fired a wrist shot from the top of the circles, and the puck found its way to the back of the net under Fasth’s arm.

“It was huge for us,” said Immonen.

With nine minutes remaining in the third period, the arena erupted when the Lakers finally got the puck into the JYP net, but the goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference.

Vaxjo pushed and pushed and the JYP players were on their heels in the second half of the third period. With a minute and a half remaining, the hosts got another power play opportunity, but couldn’t capitalize on it.

Instead, Janne Kolehmainen sent the puck for the full length of the ice into an empty Lekrs net, sealing the final score, 2-0.

“Winning the CHL has been one of our main objectives this season. This is great for us, and for Finnish hockey in general,” said Jukka Holtari, JYP’s director of hockey operations after the players had greeted a group of traveling Finnish fans by hoisting the CHL championship trophy.

“Hoisting a trophy never gets old,” said Immonen. “And we’re now the first Finnish team to have won the Champions Hockey League.”

The unofficial capital of central Finland is now also the capital of European hockey.

RISTO PAKARINEN
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Korean Hockey Magic

February 6, 2018, 9:00 pm
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A lot of good things have happened for Korean hockey in this decade. But the biggest boost came when PyeongChang earned the right to host the 2018 Olympics.

Leading up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, we’re looking back at some of the biggest developments in this sport in an ongoing series called “Korean Hockey Magic.”

The Korean work ethic is legendary, and even an abbreviated re-telling of PyeongChang’s road to the Winter Games makes it clear: persistence pays off. Korea had to bid not once, not twice, but three times before finally securing the third Winter Olympics in Asian history and the first outside Japan, which has hosted twice (Sapporo 1972, Nagano 1998).

PyeongChang is a county in the mountainous Gangwon province in the northeast of the Republic of Korea, long famed for abundant nature, Buddhist temples, and the Yongpyong ski resort, among other attractions. In 2002, when its bid made the final round of voting for the 2010 Olympics, it had strong governmental and public support, a well-conceived transportation plan, and a vision for a post-Olympic legacy. But the time wasn’t ripe for Olympic hockey to come to PyeongChang yet.

2 July 2003 was one of the happiest days in Vancouver’s history – and one of the saddest for PyeongChang. During the 115th IOC session in Prague, the first round of voting among delegates favoured PyeongChang with 51 votes, while Vancouver got 40, and Salzburg dropped out after getting just 16.

However, Canada’s West Coast metropolis picked up most of Salzburg’s vote in Round Two, and Vancouver edged PyeongChang 56-53. At GM Place (known as Canada Hockey Place during the 2010 Olympics), Canadians who had gathered to watch the verdict on the giant scoreboard erupted with cheers – foresaging what would happen there when Sidney Crosby got the golden goal in overtime against the United States in 2010. Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice to give Canada a 2-0 final win over the American women.

Undeterred, Korean organizers decided to bid again for the 2014 Olympics. But like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, it must have felt as if they were reliving a strange (and unwelcome) dream. Heading into the IOC vote in Guatemala City on 4 July 2007, the Koreans had plenty of goodwill left over from 2010, and their plan to invest heavily in new venues located close to one another drew acclaim. Yet again, they fell short.

With Russian president Vladimir Putin appearing in person to promote the Sochi bid, Russia claimed the right to host its first Winter Games. The voting was eerily similar to the last time, as PyeongChang led Sochi 36-34 in the first round, and Salzbug dropped out after getting just 25 votes. But in Round Two, Sochi heartbreakingly edged PyeongChang 51-47.

The stage was set for Canada to blank Sweden 3-0 in the 2014 men’s gold medal game seven years later, while the host Russians would finish empty-handed after losing 3-1 to Finland in the quarter-finals. And Poulin got the overtime winner as the Canadian women shocked the U.S. with a 3-2 comeback victory at the Bolshoy Ice Dome.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” PyeongChang applied this maxim to perfection when questing for 2018. Ramped-up public support, new and improved ski facilities, and travel times of less than an hour between all venues highlighted the “New Horizons”-themed bid.

On 6 July 2011, Korea’s dream of being just the fourth non-European country ever to host the Winter Olympics came true. At the 123rd IOC session in Durban, PyeongChang got a whopping 63 votes on the first ballot, eclipsing Munich (25) and Annecy (7). Wild celebrations burst out across Korea after succeeding in what had become, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor, a “national obsession.”

“Koreans have been waiting for 10 years to host the Winter Games,” said bid leader Yang Ho Cho. "Now we have finally achieved our dream.”

“We never gave up and tried again and listened to your advice and improved our plans,” added former Gangwon governor Jin Sun Kim.

Since then, the benefits for Korean hockey have been clear. Above and beyond PyeongChang, the national team also made it to the top division for the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark (Copenhagen and Herning) in May. It’s the first Asian nation to earn such a promotion independent of the old Far East Qualifier program, via which Japan played in the top division from 1998 to 2004.

The women’s team got more funding and has been centralized to prepare for the game with visible effects as well.

Beautiful Olympic hockey venues await the teams, fans, and media, with the Gangneung Hockey Centre (capacity 10,000) and the Kwangdong Hockey Centre (capacity 6,000) ready to go. Regardless of who wins the medals in 2018, this is already a golden age for Korean hockey.

LUCAS AYKROYD
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Looking to make up

February 7, 2018, 4:39 am
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With the NHL players missing at the 2018 Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament, the Olympic Athletes of Russia’s team is often seen as favourite in Korea.

The NHL not sending its players to the Olympics is not necessarily a bad omen for the Russians as they have never won the Olympics when the NHL players had the chance to come in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014.

The last time Russians won the Olympics was 1992 during the break-up period of the Soviet Union when the team participated as the Unified Team. All but two players (Darius Kasparaitis in Lithuania and Alexei Zhitnik in Ukraine) were born in Russia.

In PyeongChang 2018 the circumstances will again be special as the International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian Olympic Committee after doping investigations while paving the way for clean athletes from the country. An IOC commission decided who would be invited to participate under a neutral flag as “Olympic Athletes of Russia”. The procedure eventually meant little changes for the men’s ice hockey team.

After two consecutive Olympic gold medals by the Canadian men’s national team in Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, could this be the year for the team coached by Oleg Znarok?

“We beat them even though they had NHL players,” said Ilya Kovalchuk, who will be one of the biggest stars of the tournament, about Canada’s dominance in the past. “We did it in Turin 2006 so we can beat them even when they have their best players. But I think every team will miss the NHL guys. They should be there, because the hockey is the main sport in the Olympics and the whole world is going to watch it.”

Kovalchuk has had a good season so far with KHL leader SKA St. Petersburg. With 15 of the 25 players coming from the club, it builds the backbone of the team at the Olympics almost like CSKA Moscow during the Soviet era. (CSKA accounts for eight players, the remaining two come from Metallurg Magnitogorsk.)

Kovalchuk will be joined by other SKA teammates such as fellow veteran Pavel Datsyuk and Vadim Shipachyov.

“We just prepare ourselves for every game and we’re focusing on victory. We have a great group of guys who really care about each other. You can see it in the statistics, which shows how many blocked shots we have. Also, we are good in penalty killing and that's the key,” said Kovalchuk about his club.

There were rumours before the season that Ilya Kovalchuk could return to NHL, that SKA would lose one of its biggest stars. But also with the Olympics on the horizon he decided to stay in Russia although nobody knows what will happen afterwards.

“We'll see. I don’t like to think much ahead. I prepare myself the best I can,” he said. And that’s now in Gangneung where Kovalchuk and his teammates hope to make up for the early exit four years ago on home ice in Sochi.

JURAJ HUDAK
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Trivia winners

February 7, 2018, 5:35 am
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Did you participate in the World Juniors trivia? Then you may be wondering whether you got the answers right.

Find below the questions and answers. We will have another trivia during the Olympics, stay tuned!

The three winners who were drawn among those with the correct answers are:
Humberto De Manzolini, Valencia, Venezuela
Adam Siefert, Hanover, Ontario, Canada
Alan Ars, New York, USA

1) How many World Junior gold medals has Finland won?
Four.

2) Who is the all-time points leader in U.S. World Junior history?
Jordan Schroeder

3) Who is the only goalie to win seven games at one World Juniors?
Tomas Duba

4) Who played on the top Soviet line at the 1989 tournament?
Pavel Bure, Sergei Fyodorov, Alexander Mogilny

5) Which Swedish cities hosted the 2000 World Juniors?
Skelleftea and Umea

6) Who led the 1999 Slovak bronze medal team in scoring?
Ladislav Nagy

7) Who captained the 2001 Belarus World Junior team?
Konstantin Koltsov

8) Which nations did Denmark beat for the first time at the 2017 World Juniors?
Finland and the Czech Republic

9) Who got both Swiss goals against the U.S. in the 2017 quarter-finals?
Nico Hischier

10) Which Canadian cities will host the 2019 World Juniors?
Vancouver and Victoria
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Ice Times

February 7, 2018, 7:35 am
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We are just days away from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games! Check out our Olympic issue of Ice Times for info on the men’s and women’s tournaments, as well as recaps of the 2018 World Juniors and the U18 Women’s World Championship.
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Jerseys are here

February 7, 2018, 8:42 am
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Earlier you got on IIHF.com a glimpse of what the game jerseys look like. Here are now all sets of jerseys.

The designers of Nike got a little more work than usual with the Russian teams now participating under a neutral flag as Olympic Athletes from Russia including restrictions it caused for the jersey.

And the late addition of North Korean athletes in the Olympics including a joint Korean women’s ice hockey team created a totally new jersey in the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament. It depicts the map of the Korean peninsula.

Click here to read more about how the jerseys were created.
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Huge year for Zapolski

February 7, 2018, 6:32 pm
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It’s already been an outstanding season for Ryan Zapolski, but it’s about to get a lot better.

The 31-year-old netminder, who has enjoyed a stellar season so far for Jokerit Helsinki in the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League, is heading to the Olympic Winter Games in Korea as Team USA’s likely starter. The U.S. opens the tournament on 14th February against Slovenia.

What happens after that is up to him. Zapolski fully expects the USA goaltender playing the best to get the bulk of the action, whether it is he or Brandon Maxwell, who plays for BK Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Extraliga, or David Leggio of EHC Munchen in Germany’s DEL.

“I don’t know for sure,” Zapolski said, regarding his expected workload. “We’ll see when we get there, but probably whoever’s playing the best should get to play, in my opinion. I’m okay if it’s not me, we’re all there to win, but hopefully I’m playing the best and I get to play right away.”

Zapolski has been excellent this year for Jokerit, sporting a 23-11-4 record along with a stingy 1.73 goals-against average (ranking third in the KHL among starters), a 93.2 save percentage (good for fourth among starting netminders), and a league-leading nine shutouts through 38 appearances. He was the only goaltender named when the U.S. announced its roster on New Year’s Day.

“I think it starts with his numbers, and this guy, the numbers are fantastic on a very consistent basis,” said Team USA general manager Jim Johannson before he tragically passed away on 21st January, regarding Zapolski. “Also, when you get to know him as a guy, he’s got a real calming demeanor to him. You see the competitiveness in him, but he’s also a guy that can bring confidence to a team and it makes a difference. From a very consistent level for the last five years in Europe, he’s been a top goaltender. And I think, if you look at his teams, he’s always played on teams that have had some success, but they’ve also at times needed to rely on a goaltender to carry them through some games, and he’s capable of doing that.”

Both Maxwell and Leggio were added to the U.S. team on 11th January, which gives the impression that Zapolski has the inside track on the starting job, something head coach Tony Granato seemed to acknowledge.

“Obviously, we only named one goalie a month ago when we named Zapolski, so he’s the guy that’s had the best year of the three,” Granato said. “He’s been really solid all year playing in the KHL.”

This is Zapolski’s second season with Jokerit and his fifth in Finland, after suiting up for Lukko Rauma in the domestic championship Liiga from 2013 to 2016. Following a solid performance last year when he went 16-19-5 with a 2.45 goals-against average and a 90.9 save percentage, Zapolski has taken a big step forward this season.

“It’s my second year here, so I think I’m a little more comfortable,” he said, trying to explain his recent success. “I got off to a really good start, I was able to play a lot right away. Our other goalie got injured in pre-season, so that helped me. Last year, I didn’t get to play as much, just kind of splitting every game, but I’m used to playing a lot, and I was playing a lot right away, and our team is pretty strong. We work hard. It’s just fun. We’re winning a lot so it was easy to come to the rink and just play hockey. I don’t know if there’s any secret to it.”

It’s gone so well, in fact, that Zapolski recently signed a new two-year contract extension to stay with Jokerit through 2020.

“I want to play in the best league I can and the KHL is a great league, and I’m comfortable with everything,” said Zapolski, who is from Erie, Pennsylvania, played NCAA hockey at Mercyhurst College (which is in Erie) and was never drafted by an NHL club. “I’m obviously getting older, so the NHL, I don’t know if it’s there anymore, but we’ll see after this next two years. If things go well, you never know, but I’m happy here, so I didn’t see any reason to move on.”

While it can sometimes be a challenge as an American in a foreign country, he loves it in Helsinki (more than he did in Rauma) and has even learned to speak some Finnish, although he doesn’t really need to.

“It was a little bit different in Rauma the first few years, it was really small, so there wasn’t a lot to do, but most people spoke English,” Zapolski said. “Our coach didn’t, so everything was in Finnish there, but you pick up on some words here and there. Now I can listen to guys talk and I know a lot of what they’re saying, but I definitely can’t speak it fluently. Here, we have a lot of import guys – four Danish guys, a couple of Swedish and five Americans, so everything is in English. It’s really North American-like, and around Helsinki, there’s really good restaurants, good shopping and stuff like that, so it’s kind of busy, a lot of stuff to do.”

He’s used to it now, but it was a pretty monumental decision when he first opted to leave North America. He had just put together a monster 2012/13 season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, posting ridiculous numbers (a 25-11-2 record, 1.62 GAA, 94.4 save percentage and eight shutouts) to claim the league’s Rookie of the Year, Goaltender of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. At that point, Zapolski felt he’d earned the right to move up a level but wasn’t happy with the NHL/AHL offers he received, so he took a leap of faith and headed over to Finland.

“It was a huge step,” admitted Zapolski, who went 30-19-7 with a 2.02 GAA, 92.6 SP and seven shutouts that first year with Lukko. “I’d always hoped to come over for a couple of years and then go back to North America, but it hasn’t really worked out that way. The big factor for me was getting to play a lot of games and I believed it was pretty comparable to the AHL, and I didn’t know if I would have that chance in North America.

“So I got to play a lot and really improved my game. There’s a lot of Finnish goalies that are known to come to North America and be good NHL goalies, so that was kind of my goal, to learn a little bit of the Finnish style. That was a bit of a selling point as well. It’s been good. It’s a great hockey country and I’ve really enjoyed it here.”

Now, as the Olympic tournament rapidly approaches, Zapolski is gearing up for what will undoubtedly be a memorable experience.

“It’s really exciting, obviously, and I’m really humbled by the opportunity that I’ve gotten here,” Zapolski said. “It’s an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I’m just looking forward to getting there and having an opportunity to win gold.”

JOHN TRANCHINA
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South Africa moves up

February 7, 2018, 9:37 pm
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South Africa won the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III Qualification on home ice in Cape Town after beating Chinese Taipei in two tight games.

After the withdrawal of Turkmenistan the tournament was played as a best-of-three series. Chinese Taipei was the top-seeded team after having beaten South Africa 7-1 last year but the South Africans made perfect use of their home-ice advantage as the tournament host.

In the first game South Africa outshot Chinese Taipei 29-22 and Sky Johnson scored the only goal on a power play at 8:47 of the second period while Ryan Boyd earned a shutout as both goalies were named the best players of the game.

Johnson was the only player to score two goals and collect three points in the tournament.

The second game offered more scoring chances and more goals. And for most of the time South Africa was ahead. James Taljaard opened the scoring at 1:50 but Kuan-Yu Lin converted the first power play of the game to tie it up.

The South Africans took the lead again with a Reinhard Venter goal at 13:07 but 72 seconds later it was again Lin, who scored for Chinese Taipei on a man advantage. And with the next power play Wei Chiang gave Chinese Taipei a 3-2 first-period lead.

South Africa found back in the game with two unanswered goals in the middle frame. At 2:31 Johnson scored the first power-play goal for the South Africans. Two minutes later Yu-Hong Kuo was again sent to the penalty box and Delano Schuurman regained the lead – 4-3 for South Africa.

The goal was followed by ill-disciplined action from both teams with 12 penalties assessed within just over 12 minutes.

Chinese Taipei made use of late penalties against South Africa when Wei Chiang scored on a 5-on-3 53 seconds in the third period to tie the game at four.

With the score tied the teams focused more on their skills, improved discipline and defence. Eventually it was South Africa that got the next lead and Gareth Bremner’s 5-4 marker stayed as the last goal to win the series 2-0.

The third game was not played as part of the competition anymore after South Africa’s two wins but the teams decided to play it as an exhibition game and Chinese Taipei got its first win, 6-4.

Click here for scores and stats.

MARTIN MERK
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Korean Hockey Magic

February 7, 2018, 11:44 pm
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From on-ice progress to off-ice diplomacy, the Korean women’s national team has had a remarkable run from 2016 to today. They even had a movie made about them.

Leading up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, we’re looking back at some of the biggest developments in this sport in an ongoing series called “Korean Hockey Magic.”

Let’s be clear: Korea is a newcomer to international women’s competition. It suffered its worst loss ever to China on 31 January 2003, falling 30-0 at the Asian Winter Games in Aomori, Japan, and iced a team in official IIHF competition for the first time in 2004. The strides the Korean women have made since then are impressive. It’s no wonder they became the subject of a 2016 feel-good sports movie.

Take Off 2 (also known as Run-Off) could be dubbed Korea’s answer to The Mighty Ducks. Directed by Jong-hyun Kim, it was a sequel of sorts to 2009’s Take Off, which focused on the Korean men’s ski jumping team. With liberal doses of laughter and tears, Take Off 2 tells the story of how a motley crew of athletes, including a former short-track speed skater and a middle-school student, first came together to form a national hockey team in 2002.

Of course, to quote the great Australian poets in AC/DC: “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.” For years, the Korean women struggled against international opponents. In 2011, the year PyeongChang was awarded the 2018 Olympics, they were still stuck in the fifth tier of the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship program where they played the likes of New Zealand and South Africa. But since then, they’ve made steady progress.

One big catalyst was the 2014 hiring of Sarah Murray as head coach of the national team. Murray, now 29, is the daughter of Andy Murray, the former NHL coach who became an IIHF World Championship legend with three gold medals for Canada (1997, 2003, 2007) and was named to the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2012. But it’s not just about her bloodlines: she put in her time before getting this job. A two-time NCAA champion as a forward with the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, Murray also played and coached youth hockey in both Switzerland and China.

“When I came to Korea, I didn’t really know what to expect,” she told IIHF.com. “My first impression of these girls is that they love to play the game. They all show up to the rink smiling and eager to learn every day.”

Climbing the ranks steadily, Korea finished first at an April test event for the PyeongChang Olympic venues, the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group A. The host nation posted a perfect 5-0 record and 21-3 goal difference, and Do-hee Han was named Best Goalkeeper, while Jong-ah Park finished second in tournament scoring with 10 points. It is the first time the Korean women’s team got promoted to the Division I.

Another important symbolic highlight was the game against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The two Koreas had never faced each other in a game on the Korean peninsula before, and this opportunity to create a small diplomatic bridge was arguably more important than the final result, a 3-0 win for the Republic of Korea. Afterwards, the teams from the north and south got together for a group photo.

Just having these teams compete against each other in the Korean peninsula itself was historic. And after that experience it became even better. When the governments of the Koreas discussed having North Korean athletes at the Olympics, they remembered the women’s hockey teams. On 20 January 2018, North and South Korean officials met with an IOC delegation in Lausanne, Switzerland and agreed to ice a unified Korean women’s team at the Olympics.

“This would have seemed impossible only a few weeks ago,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Today is a great moment for the Olympic Movement, because the Olympic spirit has brought us all together.”

It marks the first time in Olympic history that the two Koreas have created a combined team with athletes from the north and south on the same etam. An official announcement clarified the procedure: “This unified women’s ice hockey team will be created by adding 12 players and one official from the National Organizing Committee of the DPRK to the existing ROK Olympic squad of 23 players. With respect to fair play and the other competing teams, only 22 players will be entitled to play in each game, as is the rule for all participating teams.”

“This initiative by North and South Korea offers a tremendous opportunity to use ice hockey, one of the core team sports of the Olympic Winter Games, as a tool to foster create new connections and develop closer bonds across the Korean peninsula,” said IIHF President René Fasel. “The IIHF will work with all the participating teams to make sure this endeavour for peace through sport is a success.”

Competing at the Olympics in Group B against Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan, the unified Korean team will face a challenge as tall as Gangwon Province’s famous Taebak Mountains. But if history provides any indication, they’ll respond with courage and determination.

LUCAS AYKROYD
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A three-sport star

February 8, 2018, 9:16 am
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Susanna Tapani is a busy and accomplished athlete. Not only does she excel at ice hockey but also inline hockey and ringette.

And in each case, Tapani has represented her country and brought home honours after doing so.

At the Four Nations tournament in November, which was the biggest test for the top women’s ice hockey team before the Olympics, Tapani was an active presence throughout the tournament for Finland, scoring a goal and assist in four games. In 2017, the 24-year-old Tapani has established herself as a key contributor for the national team.

Tapani was instrumental in helping Finland win bronze at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship. She led the team in scoring with three goals and nine points, which tied her for third in tournament scoring.

Tapani was never better than helping Finland to a 4-3 win over Canada in the tournament on 1st April. It was the first time in IIHF competition that Finland’s women defeated Canada, going back to 1990. She scored Finland’s third goal of the game and added two assists.

“It was a really big thing for us knowing that we beat them and that it was possible for us to do something like that,” Tapani said. “The win against Canada was motivation for us to believe we can do that. We have to win the right games.”

Since joining the national team in 2011, Tapani has won three bronze medals and believes Finland is getting closer to taking the next logical step in international competition. Securing a spot in a gold medal game at the World Championships and Olympics drives Tapani and her team.

“That’s our big dream to that we are going to be in the finals one day. That’s why we play the game and what motivates us.”

In Korea she will enjoy her second Olympic experience. The Winter Olympics offer yet another opportunity to build on what she’s accomplished so far and build on her emergence as a key player.

“Last time was my first time at the Olympics. It will be different now. I didn’t know what to expect but feel different having done it. After three years of waiting for this opportunity, we have the confidence and I can’t wait.”

Tapani’s experience at the Four Nations Cup has been a good one. Finland’s overtime win against Sweden assured a third-place finish and some momentum for the national team heading into 2018.

“It is really important for us to be a part of this tournament. Usually we play against Sweden and other European countries so this is the only tournament we play Canada and the USA so this is really big for us.”

Still, there is work to be done. If anything, the Four Nations Cup offers Tapani and her team some insight as to what can be worked on.

“Our power play was not that good. We have to score when we have those chances. Offensive play needs to pick up too.”

Tapani keeps an active schedule. After the Four Nations Cup had wrapped up, she was back in North America for the World Ringette Championships and then Korean for the Olympics and, finally, the inline hockey next summer. She’s twice been part of a World Championship winning ringette team and an inline medallist.

“I’m pretty busy with sports. I just love these sports so I’ll just keep playing every day. I would not be here if I didn’t play ringette. Same with inline hockey. Whatever sport I play I get into.”

JOHN SANFUL
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Wily veterans

February 8, 2018, 4:53 pm
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From superstars to survivors, the 2018 Winter Games features an intriguing selection of repeat Olympians. Some are up in years, while others remain baby-faced.

Some players require no introduction. Russian superstars Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk are both back for their fifth consecutive Winter Games. Both made their Olympic and NHL debuts in 2001/02, contributing to Russia’s last Olympic medal in Salt Lake (bronze). In between, they amassed Stanley Cups, Gagarin Cups, IIHF World Championships, and individual trophies.

Conversely, some may be surprised to realize Christian Ehrhoff is playing his fourth Olympics in PyeongChang. Like Datsyuk and Kovalchuk, the workhorse defenceman debuted in 2002, and if Germany had qualified for Sochi, this would probably be his fifth go-round. Yes, Ehrhoff is past his glory days of quarterbacking the Vancouver Canucks’ power play to the 2011 Stanley Cup final and signing a $40-million deal with the Buffalo Sabres. Still, the 35-year-old Kolner Haie captain will log big minutes under his former San Jose teammate, national coach Marco Sturm.

Czech captain Martin Erat also flies under the radar as a four-time Olympian at age 36. A 2006 bronze winner in Turin, this puck-moving winger with 881 career NHL games is helping to mould the new generation of Czech stars with Brno Kometa, as Martin Necas is his club teammate. U.S. captain Brian Gionta wouldn’t likely be playing this season if not for PyeongChang. The 39-year-old veteran of two World Juniors and two Worlds made his lone previous Olympic appearance in 2006.

How about the women? It’s hard to believe Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin, 26, is heading into her third straight Games after scoring the gold-medal winner in both 2010 and 2014. Sweden’s Pernilla Winberg, 28, has an even longer history. Entering her fourth Olympics, she won an historic silver medal in 2006 and led the Olympics in scoring in 2014.

Japanese forward Hanae Kubo, who led Olympic Qualification Group D with six points last year, gets into her second Olympics at age 35. Even more remarkably, Finland’s ageless playmaker Riikka Valila is bound for her fourth Winter Games at age 44. The Jyvaskyla native, who retired from hockey from 2003 to 2013, topped the inaugural Olympic women’s tournament in 1998 with 12 points.

In 2014, Teemu Selanne was named Olympic MVP at age 43. So don’t be surprised to see some of these wily veterans make a big impact.

LUCAS AYKROYD
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Korean Hockey Magic

February 8, 2018, 11:29 pm
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When the IIHF World Ranking system debuted in 2003, Korea sat 32nd overall. Nobody could have foreseen Korea would make it to the top Worlds division for 2018.

Leading up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, we’re looking back at some of the biggest developments in this sport in an ongoing series called “Korean Hockey Magic.”

The catalyst for the Korean men’s national team’s remarkable ascent was, of course, landing the right to host in 2018. That landmark moment at the IOC Congress in Durban on 6 July 2011 suddenly made hockey into a big national priority. No host country wants to turn in a sub-par performance.

For instance, the last time the Winter Olympics came to Asia in 1998, host nation Japan delighted fans in Nagano with a 2-2 tie with Belarus and a 4-3 win over Austria. Granted, the Japanese were far from contending for gold. They finished 13th out of 14 teams. But Japan has a longer, stronger IIHF tradition than Korea. So the men from the Land of the Morning Calm needed to work fast to build up their hockey credibility.

In an interview with the New York Times, Anyang Halla defenceman Don Ku Lee bluntly summed up his feeling about the gap in talent and experience between the 2018 host nation and their Olympic rivals: “The other teams will be fighting with tanks and the Koreans will be using wooden sticks.”

Even though the Korean federation hired former two-time Stanley Cup champion Jim Paek in 2014 as their GM and head coach and added fellow ex-NHLer Richard Park as an assistant coach, they couldn’t go out there and score the goals.

And despite the well-publicized recruitment of active Canadian players like 2009 NCAA champion (Bemidji State) goalie Matt Dalton, ex-Edmonton Oilers defenceman Alex Plante, and former Mississauga IceDogs captain Michael Swift, there was no guarantee the imports would gel well enough with their native Korean teammates to get promoted out of Division I.

However, anyone who attended the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A got to witness a minor miracle.

The six-team, round-robin tournament in Kyiv, Ukraine in April featured five squads besides Korea, including Austria, Kazakhstan, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine. Only the top two finishers would go to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark. Korea wasn’t favoured. Austria had played in the elite division every second year from 2005 to 2015, while the Kazakhs had done the same from 2010 to 2016. It seemed probable that these two “elevator teams” would be going up again. Or Hungary, which had just come down from the top division. Or Poland, which had to settle for bronze the years before.

However, the Koreans got off to a good start with a 4-2 win over Poland as Dalton recorded 36 saves. Dumping Kazakhstan 5-2 on the strength of two Plante goals showed they were for real. Korea next earned a 3-1 victory over Hungary, but then took a big step back in a 5-0 loss to Austria. It would all come down to a showdown with host Ukraine on the final day.

The nail-biting game was tied 1-1 after regulation, and even though the Koreans outshot Ukraine 8-0 in 3-on-3 overtime, they couldn’t break through. However, Swift and Sanghoon Shin scored in the shootout to secure an ecstatic victory. Finishing second behind Austria, Korea made history by becoming the first Asian nation in modern hockey to make the elite division without the old Far East Qualification tournament that saw Japan promoted annually from 1998 to 2004.

“It’s very important for us [to be promoted],” said Paek. “We get to play against top-division teams and get this experience. For many years we haven’t been able to play against such countries so it’s important to get this experience.”

Even though Korea’s imports stepped up in Kyiv, it’s also worth noting that the team’s three top scorers were homegrown talents: Jin Hui Ahn (5 points), Kisung Kim (4 points), and Sangwook Kim (4 points). This nation of 51 million has just 171 registered male senior players and 30 indoor rinks. Yet both in PyeongChang in February and Denmark in May, it’ll be unwise to underestimate the hard-working Korean national team.

LUCAS AYKROYD
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Unity and harmony

February 9, 2018, 6:30 am
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Friday's spectacular opening ceremony set the scene for a festival of sport in PyeongChang - and the United Korean Women's Hockey team led the way.

On a night dedicated to peace and harmony, Korea's historic Women's Ice Hockey team played a key role at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in PyeongChang.

With a roster that brings together the two Korean states, the team's symbolic importance underpinned the spectacular start to proceedings. First, Chung Gum Hwang, a 22-year-old forward from the North Korean Taesongsan club, joined Korean bobsledder Yunjong Won beneath the symbolic banner of a Unified Korea. The pair led the largest-ever Winter Olympic team of Korean athletes – 144 from the South, 22 from the North – as the twin delegations marched together to conclude the parade of the 92 nations competing at the 2018 Games.

Then, at the culmination of the spectacular event, two more players from the women's hockey team carried the Olympic Torch on the final steps of its journey. Team captain Jongah Park of South Korea was joined by Su-Hyon Jong, the North's leading scorer in last season's World Championship action, to bring the torch to the foot of the cauldron and hand it to figure-skating legend Yuna Kim.

The unified delegations drew a predictably rapturous reception from the crowd, upstaging even the bare-chested Tongan flag-bearer Pita Taufatofua, Taekwondo fighter turned cross-country skier, who shrugged off bitterly cold conditions in PyeongChang to warm the hearts of everyone in the arena by reprising the topless march last seen in the warmer climes of Rio at the Summer Olympics two years ago.

Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, captured the spirit of the moment in his speech. “This is how we show the unique power of sport to unite people,” he said. “An example of this unifying power is the joint march of the two teams of the Republic of Korea and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea … Now in PyeongChang the athletes of ROK and DPRK, by marching together, sent a powerful message of peace to the world.”

Hee-Beom Lee, president of PyeongChang's organising committee, expressed similar sentiments. The PyeongChang Games, I am confident, will provide a light of hope for all global citizens yearning for peace on this planet, he said.

That message of peace and unity will continue even as the competitive action gets underway. Hwang and her team-mates will form a historic unified Korean squad in the women’s hockey tournament – something never seen before at Olympic Games. Twelve North Korean hockey players were added to the South Korean roster of 23 players for the Games in a gesture that will hopefully promote detente and harmony between Pyongyang and Seoul. While the Korean ladies will still be limited to a 22-strong game-day roster, at least three North Korean players will dress for each game according to the agreement between the two countries. Hwang was one of four players from the DPRK to play in the team’s first warm-up action last Sunday, when it lost 3-1 to Sweden.

Peace and harmony were also the underlying themes of a powerful opening ceremony that drew on the Korean peninsula’s turbulent history to promote a message of understanding. Telling the story of five children travelling through time in search of a world of peace, the show used local symbolism to reflect its universal theme. The Arirang, a much-loved folksong often described as the unofficial national anthem of both countries, was the soundtrack to the centrepiece of the show. The serene strains of this tale of divided lovers rang out, powerfully performed by 70-year-old singer Man-gil Kim and rising above the tempest of history evoked by the light show in the arena.

Then, following the lighting of the Olympic Flame, the mythical Dokkaebi – goblin-like pranksters first recorded in the Silla-era tale told by the Arirang – spread that light throughout the crowd at the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium. It wasn’t just ancient folklore – the fans were also quick to roar their approval when they recognised ‘Gangnam Style’ among a K Pop-heavy soundtrack during the parade of athletes.

ANDY POTTS
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