hckošice

Some interesting news for the hockey fans prior to the games looks we are slowly but still finally moving in the IIHF hockey planet ... The IIHF has introduced its guidelines for the use of coach’s challenges during the Men’s and Women’s Olympic ice hockey tournaments. There are two situations possible for issuing the Coach’s Challenge: Off-side situation prior the scoring of a goal Interference on a goaltender Only one Coach’s Challenge per team per stoppage will be permitted. After the scoring of the goal in the final minute of play in the 3rd period and at any point in Overtime (in any games), the IIHF Video Goal Judge Booth Operations can initiate the review of any scenario that would otherwise be subject to a Coach’s Challenge. Coach’s Challenge Procedure What can be challenged?

This was a really chaotic start from Petra

The first to complete it´s 2018 WCh program will be this year the Women´s U18 category. after the top division and both Division I Group A and Group B world championships, we have still to conclude the Division I Group B qualification tournament, this one will be played this week in Mexico. finally only 5 nations entered the qualifiers, since North Korea unfortunately withdrew. so here todays Day 1 Schedule 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's Division I Group B Qualification Tournament In Mexico City, , 30 January - 4 February 2018 Participants: Kazakhstan, Spain, Mexico, Turkey, Netherlands Tuesday January 30th, 2018 - Round-Robin Day 1 Schedule (GMT -6) 16:30 Netherlands vs Spain 20:10 Mexico vs Kazakhstan ----------------------------------------------------- Rest Day: Turkey *Tournament Format: 5 Nations play a usual Round-Robin tournament, Each team play once every opponent, Only The first ranked Nation will qualify for the Women´s Under 18 Division I Group B World Championships next year in 2019 where they will replace Australia relegated from this years WU18 Div I B WCh tournament held in Poland earlier this month. All other Teams will have to retry their luck again next year in the Women´s Under 18 Division I Group B Qualification Tournament 2019

All rosters updated in post 2

TEAM UNIFIED KOREA Goaltenders: Han Do-Hee (Ice Avengers) Genevieve Kim Knowles (Phoenix) Ri Pom (Sajabong) Shin So-Jung (Ice Beat) Defencers: Cho Mi-Hwan (Ice Avengers) Choe Jong-Hui (Kimchaek) Eom Su-yeon (Ice Avengers) Hwang Chung-Gum (Taesongsan) Hwang Sol-Gyong (Jangjasan) Kim Se-Lin (Ice Avengers) Park Chae-Lin (Ice Beat) Park Ye-Eun (Ice Beat) Park Yoon-Jung (Phoenix) Ryu Su-Jong (Kimchaek) Forwards: Choe Un-Gyong (Susan) Choi Ji-Yeon (Ice Avengers) Choi Yu-Jung (Ice Beat) Randi Heesoo Griffin (Phoenix) Han Soo-Jin (Ice Beat) Danelle Im (Phoenix) Jin Ok (Kanggye) Jo Su-Sie (Ice Beat) Jong Su-Hyon (Taesongsan) Jung Si-Yun (Ice Avengers) Kim Hee-Won (Ice Avengers) Kim Hyang-Mi (Taesongsan) Kim Un-Hyang (Kanggye) Kim Un-Jong (Taesongsan) Ko Hye-In (Ice Avengers) Lee Eun-Ji (Phoenix) Lee Jing-Yu (Phoenix) Lee Yeon-Jeong (Ice Beat) Caroline Nancy Park (Phoenix) Park Jong-Ah (Ice Avengers) Ryo Song-Hui (Taesongsan)

one change in the German team. The Mannheim Adler´s defencer Sinan Akdag will replace his team mate Denis Reul, who had to submit a ankle surgery. Interesting news about the 38 years old USA´s Brian Gionta, who has no club this whole season, but apparently he made a deal with AHL´s Rochester to play one match for them before the departures to Korea against Toronto on Friday. This will be only his 4th match this season after the 3 games of USA in the Deutschland Cup last November

our biathletes will be the first athletes from our delegation to travel to Korea, their departure is expected this Wednesday altogether with the womens part of cross-country skiing team. but yeah, back to what I wanted to say, before the departure they all had today a last meeting with the authorities at our military sports center (because yes, they are all soldiers), and the minister of defense himself came today to salute them and wish them good luck etc... but I just can not our army "Jogging suits" uniforms ! This feeling always when I see them..dear lord, they must use them for at least 50 years or what c´mon have you seen anything uglier than that ? from the middle to left Fialková sisters Paulína and Ivona, Alžbeta Majdišová and Terézia Poliaková, the two guys next to Paulína are our doubles luge team and the best of best Nastya Kuzmina and Martin Otčenáš

btw this was the first Bandy match played from any slovak player since 1928 just found some infos about the guys, looks it s a bunch of amateurs but really passionate bandy addicts. cool but well..you know bandy ...

IOC reveiled the so-called Conduct guidelines for Russians Olympic Athletes from Russia in PC 2018 https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document Library/OlympicOrg/News/2018/01/OAR-Conduct-Guidelines.pdf (they even can not sing their national anthem inside the venue - which in fact literaly means Kovalchuk will not be able to sing the anthem after receiving eventual gold, this was his main goal, after all the OAR thing was official https://www.rt.com/sport/412101-russia-olympic-ban-hockey-kovalchuk/ ) btw Danka Barteková was selected as one of the monitoring unit. this unit will be led by Pere Miro and Kit McConell (the monitoring unit members are here https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-issues-conduct-guidelines-for-olympic-athlete-from-russia-delegation )

171 http://www.swissolympicteam.ch/fr/jeux-olympiques/jeux-d-hiver/pyeongchang-2018/Team.html

MEN´S UNDER 20 DIVISION III 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U20 Division III concludes Israel, China and Bulgaria win medals The Israeli players and team staff pose for a team photo after receiving their 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III gold medals Two days before the end of the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III the winner was determined. In the first game of the fourth competition day Israel beat closest rival Iceland 6-2 and secured the first place in the tournament and promotion for the next’s year Division II Group B. In the previous games the Israeli hockey talents defeated China 3-2, host Bulgaria 4-3 and Australia 7-2. It was a historic day for Israeli ice hockey as the U20 national team won its first IIHF U20 event in its fourth participation. The debut was in 1997 and the next two were in 2016 and 2017 with a 4th and 5th-place finish. Israel has played in 14 IIHF U18 Championships since 2001, but has just one first place in the Division III Group B in 2013. There are no players from this winning team on the current U20 roster, but 5 years ago there was one American, Derek Eisler, on the team’s officials list as “team staff”. Since 2015 he is the head coach of all Israeli teams (Men, U20, U18) in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program with one exception – the U18 team last year. The silver and bronze medals were up for grabs on Sunday at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia after Israel had secured the top spot and promotion on Friday. Four teams had chances to finish in the top-three. Iceland was ahead in this race with seven points before the last game day, followed by China and Bulgaria with 6 and Australia with 5. In the first scheduled game Israel completed its perfect record (5 wins/5 games) with a 5-0 blanking of New Zealand, which finished last with zero points. Mark Revniaga, the captain of the Israeli team, scored two goals and finished the tournament with the most goals (11) and points (15). He was selected as the best forward by the directorate of the championship. Mark, whose father was assistant coach for the Israeli team in Sofia, is playing for New York Apple Core in Brewster. Raz Werner, a goaltender for the Grastorps IK in the Swedish U20 Elite, had the only shutout in the whole event after making 26 save and finished the competition with a 2.00 GAA and a 93.41% save percentage. “We brought a well-rounded team that had all the pieces to produce and we worked as a team the whole week. Everybody was involved and followed our game’s strategy,” said the head coach Derek Eisler. Even when his team earned the promotion on Friday, he was seen on the stands, scouting the Kiwis and preparing the tactics for the last game. So it is not a coincidence that Israel was first in almost every statistical category in the end - scoring efficiency (19,53%), power play (44,44%, 12 from 27), goaltending (92,31%) and in second place for penalty killing (84,85%). The drama unfolded in the next matchup on Sunday: Iceland vs. Bulgaria. The hosts could finish on every position from second to fifth in the standings, depending on their match, but also on the last encounter of the day: China vs. Australia. A win for the Icelanders would guarantee them second place, a win for Bulgaria would guarantee the third place for the host nation. And the Chinese players were watching the game from closeby, cheering for the Bulgarians, so they could have a chance to finish second by defeating Australia. Iceland was leading half of the way on an early goal by Edmunds Induss at 2:52, but in the second period Daniel Dilkov tied the score at 13:08. With his aggressive style Miroslav Vasilev took three opponents to the right circle and then passed the puck back to Dilkov, who was alone in front of the net. He was able to beat the goalie with his third try. The third period started with power-play goal for Iceland. Six minutes later Dilkov, who plays for the MsHKM Zilina U20 team in Slovakia, scored again after carrying the puck through the neutral zone and blasting a shot from the top of the left circle. The Bulgarian top line had the upper hand on the opposition most of the time, but the score was still 2-2 when Iceland was called for icing 18.6 seconds before the end. Stanislav Muhachev, the head coach of Bulgaria, took a time-out and drew a combination. Veselin Dikov won the faceoff and passed the puck back to Dilkov, who shot through traffic. Suddenly the puck was again on Dikov’s stick and he scored the game-winning goal from close range in the open net after the Icelandic goalie was out of position. “I need to sit down, can’t stand on my legs right now. We thought that the faceoff will be in the right circle, so during the time-out I drew a combination for this side and then it turned out it is in the left. Nothing you can do after that. I was just watching how the puck bounced back to Dikov,” explained Muhachev immediately after the nerve-wracking game. “It’s a great tournament for us. The only sad note is that we couldn’t beat Israel as we had our chances. But when you compare the teams in the group and our preparation, I think the third place is success. Our top line played on high level. Dilkov was impressive with his movement and skating, Vasilev showed his speed and energy. He was very emotional during the whole process and was fully involved in every moment, taking things internally. And I want of course to point out the captain – Dikov. I’ve know him since he was a child. He was a true captain and helped this team a lot with his leadership. Without him this would not be achievable.” In the last game China defeated Australia 6-1 and took the second place having the tie-breaker against Bulgaria after beating the host badly on Thursday (10-4). The captain Rudi Ying had two goals and an assists to finish second on the tournament’s scoring list with 14 points (8+6) ahead of Dilkov (8+5) and Vasilev (5+7). The expectations were high for China as the project for developing the game in the country for the 2022 Winter Olympics is in full mode. The first two games were frustrating though – a 2-3 loss against Israel and 1-2 defeat to Iceland. After that China won three in a row with a 27-7 goal record. “Our players are looking much better than the opposition here, but we missed our chances in the first games and made some mistakes too. We outplayed every other team, but against Israel, for example, we scored only two goals on 36 shots and allowed three on just 12 shots. If there was a playoff-system as a year ago, we would have had a chance to win it all, but this tournament is very short and you can’t afford to lose a game,” said the China’s U20 national team head coach Alexander Barkov. “Israel won the tournament deservedly as they played smart and tactical hockey in all games. They did that against China, waiting for their chances and scored the game winning goal on a power play eight minutes to the end. Against us their coach matched his top line to our top line all the time and didn’t take any risks. It worked again,” Bulgarian head coach Muhachev explained his opinion about the tournament winner. Iceland had to settle for fourth place while top-seeded Australia was fifth. Winless New Zealand is relegated to the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III Qualification. Results Thread

Qualified Nations Nation - Total Assigned Quotas (Men+Women+Not gender specific additional quotas) Team Event Austria - 22 (3+3+16) TE France - 22 (3+3+16) TE Switzerland - 22 (3+3+16) TE United States - 22 (3+3+16) TE Italy - 20 (3+3+14) TE Canada - 14 (3+3+8) TE Germany - 14 (3+3+8) TE Sweden - 12 (3+3+6) TE Norway - 11 (3+3+5) TE Slovenia - 11 (3+3+5) TE Croatia - 10 (2+2+6) Czech Republic - 9 (2+3+4) TE Slovakia - 7 (2+3+2) TE Olympic Athletes from Russia - 5 (3+2+0) TE Great Britain - 4 (2+1+1) TE Hungary - 4 (2+2+0) TE Japan - 4 (1+1+2) South Korea - 4 (2+2+0) TE Andorra - 3 (1+1+1) Australia - 3 (1+1+1) Belgium - 3 (1+1+1) Bulgaria - 3 (1+1+1) Chile - 3 (1+1+1) New Zealand - 3 (1+1+1) North Korea - 3 (2+1) Poland - 3 (1+1+1) Serbia - 3 (1+1+1) Albania - 2 (1+1+0) Argentina - 2 (1+1+0) Belarus - 2 (1+1+0) Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2 (1+1+0) China - 2 (1+1+0) Denmark - 2 (1+0+1) Estonia - 2 (1+1+0) Finland - 2 (1+0+1) Georgia - 2 (1+1+0) Greece - 2 (1+1+0) Iceland - 2 (1+1+0) Iran - 2 (1+1+0) Ireland - 2 (1+1+0) Kazakhstan - 2 (1+1+0) Latvia - 2 (1+1+0) Lebanon - 2 (1+1+0) Liechtenstein - 2 (1+1+0) Lithuania - 2 (1+1+0) Mexico - 2 (1+1+0) Monaco - 2 (1+1+0) Montenegro - 2 (1+1+0) Romania - 2 (1+1+0) Thailand - 2 (1+1+0) Turkey - 2 (1+1+0) Ukraine - 2 (1+1+0) Armenia - 1 (1+0+0) Azerbaijan - 1 (1+0+0) Bolivia - 1 (1+0+0) Brazil - 1 (1+0+0) Colombia - 1 (1+0+0) Cyprus - 1 (1+0+0) Eritrea - 1 (1+0+0) Hong Kong - 1 (0+1+0) Israel - 1 (1+0+0) Kenya - 1 (0+1+0) Kosovo - 1 (1+0+0) Kyrgyzstan - 1 (1+0+0) Luxembourg - 1 (1+0+0) Macedonia - 1 (1+0+0) Madagascar - 1 (0+1+0) Malaysia - 1 (1+0+0) Malta - 1 (0+1+0) Moldova - 1 (1+0+0) Morocco - 1 (1+0+0) Pakistan - 1 (1+0+0) Philippines - 1 (1+0+0) Portugal - 1 (1+0+0) Puerto Rico - 1 (1+0+0) San Marino - 1 (1+0+0) South Africa - 1 (1+0+0) Spain - 1 (1+0+0) Timor-Leste - 1 (1+0+0) Togo - 1 (0+1+0) Uzbekistan - 1 (1+0+0) Qualified Athletes : 323 Qualified Nations : 81 Qualified Nations for Team Event : 16

reigning champion Iouri Podlatchikov may miss the olympics after his fall in the X-games

This is exactly what the Consultant in the Czech Eurosport version said yesterday, she said you declined the team event mainly because to have those not gender specific realocations, just in order to avoid the place to go to women instead of male athlete, since behind Popovič there wasn´t any big chance for anyone to qualify...unfortunately now with all the realocations and refusals it wasn´t a very smart move from your federation... btw problems in the czech team since the season is unfortunately over for Kryštof Krýzl after his crash in GA-PA GS 1st round link, which may definitely be a huge trouble for CZE ambitions in the team event

6 http://www.coarg.org.ar/index.php/component/k2/item/3405-delegación-argentina-xxiii-juegos-olímpicos-de-invierno-pyeongchang-2018

Sebastiano Gastaldi (Alpine Skiing)

2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division III In Sofia, , 22-28 January 2018 Sunday January 28th, 2018 - Round-Robin Final Day Results (GMT +2) 13:00 New Zealand 0 - 5 Israel 16:30 Iceland 2 - 3 Bulgaria 20:00 Australia 1 - 6 China Final Standing 1. Israel 15 Qualified for the Men´s Under 20 Division II Group B World Championships 2019 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. China 9 3. Bulgaria 9 4. Iceland 7 5. Australia 5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. New Zealand 0 Relegated for the Men´s Under 20 Division III Qualification Tournament 2019

Stage 12 in Zakopane (POL) January 28th, 2018 Large Hill Individual Mens (12/18) 1. Anze Semenic 245.6, 2. Andreas Wellinger 242.0 and 3. Peter Prevc 241.2 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

This is just insane ! I still just can not believe it. Second medal for SVK luge since independence after Jaroslav Slávik bronze also at the European Championships 2004 in Oberhof. Congrats Jozef !

Stage 7 (Nordic Combined Triple) in Seefeld (AUT) January 28th, 2018 Individual Gundersen Normal Hill (15km) Men´s (5/7) 1. Akito Watabe 34:58.6, 2. Jarl Magnus Riiber 36:13.5 and 3. Fabian Riessle 36:56.5 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Stage 20 in Bansko (BUL) January 28th, 2018 Parallel Giant Slalom Mens (7/9) 1. Nevin Galmarini , 2. Edwin Coratti and 3. Andreas Prommegger Full Results HERE Video Highlights Parallel Giant Slalom Womens (7/9) 1. Julia Dujmovits , 2. Ramona Theresia Hofmeister and 3. Selina Joerg Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Stage 13 in Ljubno (SLO) January 28th, 2018 Normal Hill Individual Womens (9/13) 1. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz 262.4, 2. Maren Lundby 260.6 and 3. Katharina Althaus 259.3 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Stage 7 in Seefeld (AUT) January 28th, 2018 15km Mass Start Freestyle Mens (13/17) 1. Dario Cologna 31:37.9, 2. Alex Harvey 31:39.3 and 3. Martin Johnsrud Sundby 31:40.8 Full Results HERE Video Highlights 10km Mass Start Freestyle Womens (13/17) 1. Jessica Diggins 23:08.5 and Heidi Weng 23:09.2 and 3. Ragnhild Haga 23:09.5 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Stage 27 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) January 28th, 2018 Giant Slalom Mens (6/8) 1. Marcel Hirscher 2:40.18, 2. Manuel Feller 2:41.75 and 3. Ted Ligety 2:41.87 Full Results HERE Video Highlights

Stage 28 in Lenzerheide (SUI) January 28th, 2018 Slalom Womens (9/12) 1. Petra Vlhova 1:50.53, 2. Frida Hansdotter 1:50:63 and 3. Wendy Holdener 1:51.05 Full Results HERE Video Highlights