Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

Ice Blacks on their way to Ice Hockey World Championship

New Zealand’s national men ice hockey team, the Ice Blacks, are on their way to Cape Town to take part in the the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group B.

Training in Perth

The Ice Blacks will take part in a final training camp in Perth before heading to South Africa. This will give the team a last chance to work on their coordination and team play before taking on the rest of the world. They will also take part in a 3 game series against the Perth Thunder from the Australian Ice Hockey League.

Ice Blacks Manager, Graham Tappin, said they were 3 key reasons why the team is stopping in Perth:

One, Perth offers an excellent environment to allow the NZ team to practice on and off the ice with first class facilities available to ensure our players can achieve and meet all expectations as outlined by the coaching staff. Two, the team have the opportunity to play three games against the AIHL Team Perth Thunder. Three, travel from NZ to Cape Town is accessible via Perth with good airline connections to reduce length of travel and jet lag.

The Ice Blacks have been training for this tournament for several months. They took on the Southern Stampede back in October and had a week long training camp in Dunedin last February.

Dunedin players shining on the world stage

Dunedin is well represented on the New Zealand selection with defensemen Mitch Frear, Remy Sandoy and George Coslett as well as forwards Paris Heyd and Connor Harrison. Behind the bench, the Ice Blacks will be led by Dunedin Thunder coach, Janos Kaszala.

Janos was appointed Ice Blacks head coach back in May after 3 years as assistant coach.

Ice Blacks taken on the world

Once the Ice Blacks reach Cape Town, they will compete against 5 other teams: Bulgaria, China, Israel, Mexico and host South Africa. The winning team will earn promotion to Division II Group A. New Zealand will open the tournament on April 13th against Israel.

Watch the Ice Blacks games live on UStream and support our national team.