Archive for the ‘Ice Hockey’ Category

Lulea v Djurgarden, Thursday 13th November 2025, 7pm

December 16, 2025

Two days after the Champions League game I returned to the Norrbotten Arena for a domestic hockey fixture. Lulea won the league last season but have struggled this year and whilst they probably won’t get relegated, they are much closer to the bottom of the table than the top.

I went to this one on my own as everyone else had flown out that afternoon. Tickets for the domestic games are harder to come by than for the Champions League and the only availability was in the standing section behind the goal.

It was packed and I regretted wearing such a warm coat. There was plenty of pre-game flag waving and the chanting was orchestrated by a pair of capos on platforms. The atmosphere was the nearest that you’ll get to the old days on the football terraces.

It was a niggly game with nine players spending time in the cooler for a variety of offences. One fella got a red right at the end but with only a minute remaining it didn’t seem much more of a sanction than a two-minute yellow. Perhaps he’ll pick up a suspension as well.

The game was all-square at one-each going into the final two minutes of the third period. Djurgarden then scored and looked likely to have nicked the win. However, Lulea switched to fly-goalie and managed to snatch an equalizer with just eight seconds left.

As you might expect, everyone around me had a smile on their faces. The smiles turned to grins in next goal the winner overtime when Lulea made it three-two to take the points.

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Lulea v Kometa Brno, Tuesday 11th November 2025, 7pm

December 15, 2025

I’d barely returned from Budapest before it was time to head off to Sweden for work. Lulea had a couple of hockey games in the week that I was there and the first was a Champions League game against Czech team Kometa Brno.

It had been snowing heavily on the day of the game and it was a slippery walk from our hotel to the Norrbotten Arena. We had time for some pre-match food at a Thai place across the road before heading inside for a pint.

I’d selected seats low down this time and we were two rows from the action. Directly behind the wags. The Czech side took the lead a couple of minutes in and held it until the end of the first period. That was the cue for us to head for the bar and a second beer. I like the flow of a hockey game which is beer, hockey, beer, hockey, beer, hockey and then an optional post-game pint.

The eighteen minute breaks between play work well, especially since the fellas working the bar are on the ball. It’s a world apart from trying to get a quick pint at the Riverside.

Lulea equalized early in the second period and then rattled in a further five goals in the third. The Czech keeper had done well, but once the second goal went in he got hooked and the away defence fell apart. I didn’t realise at the time, but it was a two-legged tie and I was baffled as to why Brno didn’t keep it tight and settle for a one or two goal deficit going into the return leg at their place.

On the way out I picked up a woollen bobble hat for the walk back to the hotel and a tiny Lulea shirt for the youngest grandson.

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Lulea Hockey v HC Bolzano, Tuesday 14th October 2025, 7pm

November 29, 2025

The Swedish football season is drawing to an end, with daytime temperatures in Lulea already dropping to around zero. The alternatives in the Swedish winter appear to be ice hockey, or simply ‘hockey’ over here, and basketball. I’m happy to watch most sports and had already checked to see when the fixtures coincided with my business trips.

Lulea seems to be a hockey town, rather than football, although that may very well be true of most places in Sweden. The local allegiance to the puck, rather than the ball, was strengthened by Lulea winning last season’s domestic championship. That’s an impressive feat for a small town close to the arctic circle.

The league title meant that this year Lulea would also play in the Champions League. I managed to pick up tickets online for a fixture with an Italian side at Lulea’s Coop Norbotten Arena.

The group stage of the Champions League was drawing to a close with each side needing a win to progress to the knockout rounds. The international competition isn’t as popular as the domestic league and despite the six thousand capacity arena was announced as being half-full, it seemed quieter than that.

For those of you not familiar with the format, hockey is played over three twenty-minute sessions, with an eighteen-minute break between each period. That’s pretty much the perfect timetable to punctuate the action with regular beers.

It was a close game. Lulea went two goals up but were pegged back and a late Bolzano equalizer took the game to overtime. When this happens, the teams drop from six players to four and play next goal the winner. The extra space on the ice meant that it was never likely to go too long and Lulea sealed the win just fourteen seconds after the restart. It’s not as good as football, but it’s a pleasant way to spend a winter’s evening.

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High1 v Anyang Halla, Sunday 20th February 2011, 12.30pm

March 7, 2011

After watching the same two teams play each other in Anyang the previous day, we thought we might as well watch the return fixture in Goyang. This was the final game of the regular season and whilst Anyang Halla had the play-offs to look forward to, this would be it for another seven months for the High1 players.

Goyang is a city to the north of Seoul and it involved a fair trip along Line 3 to Wondang subway station. I had my doubts as to whether a taxi driver would be aware that Goyang had an ice hockey team as most of them seem not to know of the existence of football clubs. Fortunately we struck lucky and the driver that eventually stopped for us knew of the ice rink. As it happened we could probably have walked it if we had known where we were. If you come out of the subway and then start walking in the busier looking direction, you can turn left after two or three hundred yards and in less than ten minutes you’ll be there.

There is a football pitch next to the rink. I think that Goyang’s third division team will probably play on it. There was actually a game going on whilst we were there, between teams wearing Barcelona and Liverpool kits. They had famous players names on the back of the shirts, although I must have missed the news of Lampard’s move to Anfield.

Goyang seemed to have a much more low-key set up than their opponents. There was a smaller crowd than the previous days game at Anyang and it was free to get in. It seemed much colder inside than the previous day too. They really should run the ice hockey season through the summer rather than winter as there are days in July when I’d happily pay a fortune to sit in a building with a sub-zero temperature. They wouldn’t even need to be any ice hockey for me to watch either, I’d be content just sat in the cold watching that ice-flattening tractor drive around.

High1 are in black, Anyang Halla in white.

The game was a bit more violent than the one the previous day, although a lot of the penalties looked to be for technical offences that I was unaware of.  I should really have a bit better knowledge of the rules than I do as I watched quite a few games of ice hockey when I was a kid. My local team Billingham Bombers were reasonably successful and I had a friend who played for the junior team, the Bullets. He still plays now actually, not for the junior Billingham team, that would be a bit unfair, but for an over-forties team in Canada. I think he had a couple of teeth knocked out only a month or so ago.

Without the zoom.

The game went to form again with Anyang winning five-three to give themselves a lift for the play-offs whilst High1 finished off their season with a post-match photo session where a succession of fans made their way down on to the ice to be snapped with the players. I doubt I’ll make any of the play-off games, but I’ll probably be back when the football season finishes.

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Anyang Halla v High1, Saturday 19th February 2011, 6pm

March 3, 2011

When I was at the Anyang KGC basketball game a month earlier I’d noticed some posters for the Anyang ice hockey team, Anyang Halla. The ice rink is next door to the basketball arena and so when I got home I made a bit of an effort to look them up on the internet and find out something about them.

It turns out that they are one of two Korean ice hockey teams that play in the Asian League against teams from Japan and China. I’ve no idea if there is a Korean domestic league though or whether Anyang Halla and High1 from Goyang are the only ice hockey teams in Korea.

I also discovered that the ice hockey season runs from September to February, with play-off games following in March. This, then, was an end of season game between the two Korean teams in the league. Anyang were already assured of their place in the play-offs and looked likely to finish fourth whilst High1 were too far down the table to be able to qualify.

Jen and I had looked up the Anyang Sports Complex on Google Maps and were able to work out that Line Four’s Pyeongchon  was the nearest subway station and from there it turned out to be a ten minute taxi ride. There were quite a few people hanging around outside and with half an hour still to go before the start there was a lengthy queue for tickets.

Anyang Ice Rink.

We got a couple of seven thousand Won tickets and headed inside. It’s a pity that we didn’t get there a bit earlier as a disabled ice hockey game was just drawing to a close as we arrived. It isn’t a sport that I’d even known existed so it would have been interesting to have seen the game.

We got there just a bit too late to see the game.

Anyang Halla play in quite a small venue with maybe half a dozen rows of seats around three sides of the rink making up the capacity of about two thousand. A sizeable proportion of those inside seemed to be American or Canadian and most of them seemed compelled to make as much noise as possible. One bloke behind us was making random sounds as if he felt the need to reassure those in front of him that he was still there but without wanting to use any actual words. Another to my left kept shouting “Icing“ to no-one in particular and for what seemed like no good reason.

Anyang are in the blue shirts.

There wasn’t any beer for sale inside but we’d been tipped off about this before we went in so had brought our own. It was so cold though that I think brandy would have been a better option. I haven’t really seen enough ice hockey to be able to comment on the standard of the players. I went to see the LA Kings play an NHL game a couple of years ago when I was in Los Angeles and that was a bit more enjoyable with a bigger crowd and better fights amongst the players. But so it should be, those are players competing at the highest level.

LA Kings v Detroit Redwings, October 2008.

We left during the final period with the score at two each as we were going to dinner with one of Jen’s friends. When I checked later it turned out that Anyang had scored a couple more goals late on for a four-two victory.

Whilst watching Anyang was an interesting way to spend an evening, it’s a sport that I probably wouldn’t bother with too much when it overlaps with the football season.

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