[Rock]

Iceland celebrates first
'World Championship'
By Bill Meltzer | NHL.com Correspondent
Sept. 8, 2006

http://www.nhl.com/f...land090806.html



By its very name, Iceland sounds like it would be a hospitable country for hockey. Given the Viking roots of the volcanic, glaciated island, the inhabitants of "the land of ice and fire" would seem primed to participate in the world's premier cold weather team sport.

But ice hockey is a minor sport in the small country, trailing soccer, handball and basketball for the locales' affections and sponsors' financial support. The main Icelandic hockey league (called Meistaraflokkur) has only four teams, which play an 18-game schedule between October and March. The players are amateurs and the games are not televised. Only the rare World Championship, Olympic or Stanley Cup Final game ever drifts over the Icelandic airways.

The Curious Case of Sloof Lirpa

Earlier this year, Sportsnet Canada Mike Toth writer decided to have a little fun by testing readers' knowledge of the ever-widening reaches of the hockey world.

Although Lirpa was unranked by NHL Central Scouting, due to the obscurity of the two-team Icelandic league, Toth told his readers several teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, had scouted Lirpa. As a result, there was a good chance he would be selected in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, becoming the first Icelandic player to earn the distinction.

Of course, the 2006 Entry Draft came and went with no sign of Sloof Lirpa (read the name backwards).

For the record, there's no team called the Reykjavik Reindeer, either. While the Icelandic league is certainly tiny, it contains four teams, rather than two, playing 18 games. Meanwhile, the arrival of the first Icelandic-born and trained NHL draftee remains a future dream for the most ambitious and wide-eyed optimists.


In Meistaraflokkur, there is a best-of-five championship series between the first-and second-place clubs with a best-of-three "bronze medal" round contested between the third-and fourth-place teams. Last season, first-place Skautafelag Reykjavik swept Skautafelag Akureyri for the championship.

This year, Reykjavik also hosted to the International Ice Hockey Federation Division Three World Championships. The home team went a perfect 4-0-0 in the tournament to earn a promotion to the IIHF Division Two level in 2007.

Not enough ice in Iceland

Part of the reason for hockey's minor presence in Iceland and on the world stage is the country's tiny population. Although Iceland is about one-third larger in land area than Scotland or Ireland, much of the ruggedly beautiful Icelandic terrain is uninhabited. The majority of the country's 300,000 citizens live in and around the capital city of Reykjavik. About 500 play hockey, including female and youth players.

Another reason for hockey's small presence, ironically, is lack of suitable ice. Organized hockey was first played in Iceland around 1950 on frozen ponds and rivers, but the weather made it very hard to play a meaningful season. While it certainly snows in the capital city in the winter, the average January temperatures in Reykjavik, at around 32 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit, are actually higher than those in New York. As legend has it, the Vikings tried to confuse their enemies by reversing the most logical names for the frigid Greenland and the often-green Iceland.

It wasn't until 1987 that Reykjavik opened Skautahöllin Reykjavikur, the first man-made ice rink in to the country. A second one was built in the northern city of Akureyri three years later. Skautahöllin Reykjavikur was an open-air facility until 1996, when the venue added a roof. Before then, teams had difficulty playing and practicing in the spring, as the ice sometimes became soft and started to melt. Akureyri's rink converted to an indoor venue in 2000.

Despite the hardships, Iceland has a rather unique past and present bond to the sport. The year 2006 will go down as the proudest hockey moment Icelanders have had since before World War II.

Canadian connections

To find a comparable moment in Icelandic hockey history, you have to go all the way back to the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. In that era, the winners of the Allan Cup (the Canadian amateur championship) earned the right to represent the country in the Olympics.

The Icelandic immigrants living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were quick to pick up the Canadian national game. But none of the established Canadian amateur clubs accepted any of the foreign players. So the Icelandic players formed their own squad, eventually called the Winnipeg Falcons. The team name derived from the fact the Icelandic Falcon is the largest wild bird of prey.

After World War I, the Falcons applied several times to participate in the Allan Cup, but their applications were rejected repeatedly by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. Finally, the Falcons gained entrance, winning the 1919-1920 Allan Cup.

As a result, the first Team Canada roster at the Olympics was comprised entirely of the Canadian-born sons of Icelandic immigrants (with the lone exception of the team's goaltender, Wally Byron). Led by coach Gordon Sigurjonson, the team brought home the first of Canada's seven Olympic hockey gold medals. Among the 1920 team's players were Robert Benson, team captain Frank Frederickson, Christian Fridfinnson, Haldor Haldersson and Konrad Johannesson.

In 2006, the players of Winnipeg Falcons were inducted en masse into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. Two years earlier, Team Canada paid tribute to the squad by wearing replica Falcon jerseys at the opening games of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championship. Iceland also has taken great pride in commemorating the Falcons. The crest of Team Iceland's striking national team jersey is dominated by the image of a navy blue falcon against a backdrop of a white glacier and red volcanic fire in the shape of Canada's maple leaf and a light blue sky.

The Canadian-Icelandic connection came full circle in 2006, as Team Iceland's Canadian head coach Ed Maggiacomo led the team into battle at the IIHF Division Three World Championships, held in Reykjavik from April 24 to 29. Maggiacomo, coincidentally, is a Manitoba native. He coached Skautafelag Reykjavik to the championship during the Icelandic season.

One small stride for Icelandic hockey

The Division Three level is the IIHF's lowest level of international competition. Even the top national team players at this level would struggle to make an impact in the top European minor leagues, much less an elite league or a North American pro league.

There's nary an NHL scout to be seen and only a smattering of media members attend the games. But to the players in the tournament, winning the title is their own personal "world championship," even if the prize for victory is the right to move up to the only slightly less obscure Division Two level -- still far below the level of even the middling semi-pro dominated national teams in Division One and light years behind the elite level.

The national squads the host Icelanders would face in the 2006 tournament were Turkey, Armenia, Ireland and Luxembourg.

In Iceland's opening game, goaltender Birgir Orn Sveinsson only saw 17 shots, while his own team generated 51 in defeating Luxembourg, 5-2. The game was scoreless after one period and tied 2-2 after 40 minutes before Team Iceland scored a pair of shorthanded goals (two of three tallies with a five-on-four manpower disadvantage) to go ahead for good. Gauti Thormodsson scored twice for Iceland in the final period.

Two days later, Maggiacomo's squad took on Ireland. Once again, Iceland enjoyed a lopsided shot advantage, racking up 53 shots on goal to a mere nine for Ireland, but this game was also scoreless after the first period.

During the first stanza, Iceland successfully killed off a five minute kneeing major incurred by Daniel Ericsson, who was also assessed a game misconduct. Iceland then dominated the second and third periods, scoring three times in the middle period and five times in the final period to win 8-0. Runar Freyr Runarsson scored a hat trick and added two assists for the Icelandic team.

Iceland was back in action the next day, taking on Armenia. Slow starts had become a habit for Iceland. The Armenians jumped out early, leading 2-0 after the first period on the strength of two power-play goals. Iceland fought back to tie the game with a pair of man-advantage goals in the second period.

In the see-saw third period, Armenia scored at the 2:48 mark to regain the lead, only to see Ingvar Thor Jonsson answer right back a minute later. Runarsson gave Team Iceland its first lead of the game midway through the period and Jonas Breki Magnusson quickly followed up to forge a 5-3 lead. The insurance goal proved crucial when Armenia's Sargis Mazmanyan scored with barely over a minute left. Goaltender Sveinsson held the fort the rest of the way.

On the round-robin tournament's final day, Iceland took on 2-0-1 Turkey in front of a capacity crowd of 1,000 at the tiny Skautahöllin Reykjavikur. With a win or a tie, Iceland would win the tournament. Iceland ended the suspense early, scoring once in the first period and six times in the middle frame to chase Turkish goalie Cagil Uyar from the net in the process. Iceland then proceeded to add two more insurance markers in the final period to coast to a lopsided 9-0 victory and earn Sveinsson his second shutout of the tournament. Seven different Icelandic players scored in the clincher, including two goals by Jon Ingi Hallgrimson.

The victory earned Icelandic hockey rare prominent coverage in the local press, including several front page articles in the sports section of Morgunbladid (the country's biggest morning newspaper). Maggiacomo was optimistic Iceland's "world championship" would boost interest in and the visibility of the sport over the next year.

"It will increase hockey here a lot," he told Iceland Review reporter Eliza Reid. "I couldn't have asked for any better."

Iceland, now ranked 40th in the world by the IIHF, will take part in the 2007 IIHF Division Two World Championships. It will face the likes of Ukraine, Bulgaria and Mexico. The Falcons hope to at least hold their own.

[Elias 2662]

I don't know, Iceland was pretty good in the second Mighty Ducks movie.