Singapore Ice Dragons Classic Tournament
(February 22-25, 2023)
Recap by Coach Ludovic:
In 2023 Singapore Ice Dragons Classic tournament, HK Typhoons Selects submitted 2 teams in the U8 division and 2 teams in the U10 division this time. To make it challenging for our HK Selects Team members and to give everyone a chance to go further, we decided to make the 2 teams of each division equal and balanced so that they were having the same competitiveness compared to each other. We hoped we can take this opportunity to make the Club shine, not only one team but also everyone in the division of the Hong Kong Typhoons Selects Program.
The U8 Division of the tournament was kicked off with our HK Selects U8 White Team against U8 Blue Team. Unfortunately, U8 White Team started with a defeat with a score of 2-8 to our U8 Blue team, who was enjoying the advantage of the 3 under-aged players in the team on Day 1 of the tournament. The experienced on-aged players were dominating this game. Then U8 White Team started with a very solid performance against the Bangkok Zeus Team on Day 2 with an 8-7 win and a crushing victory against Badax Indonesia of 15-0 on Day 3. The last round-robin game against the Singapore Ice Dragons Team was decisive to qualify for the final which we, unfortunately, lost this game by 4-5. At last, our U8 White team entered the Bronze Medal game against the Singapore team again. With a lack of luck, we bowed again and lost this game as we did not manage to score more than 3 goals to the goalkeeper. A little bit of mixed results for the HK Selects U8 White Team, we were the only one who had beaten the Bangkok Zeus Team in this tournament and we played a few excellent games. We will learn from this defeat.
For HK Selects U8 Blue Team, with a reduced roster gave more ice time to the leaders’ first game and the first victory against HK Selects U8 White Team with a score of 8-2. The second game was a victory against Badax Indonesia with a 14-0 win. The third game against Bangkok Zeus was a 6-5 defeat, the result was disappointing and sad but all our players played very well. The fourth game was against the Singapore Ice Dragons Team. A 5-1 victory and a very good game for all players and synonymous with proceeding to the Final. In the final game, the Bangkok Zeus team decided to use the same strategies for using only their best players during the whole game without a change. Our U8 Blue Team had fought their hardest in this game until the last even the competing team was using such a strategy. Unfortunately, our U8 Blue Team lost 2-3 to the Bangkok Zeus Team despite having dominated the game with many more shots on the net than them.
For the two HK Selects U8 teams, although White Team finished 4th and Blue Team finished 2nd, we are very happy with the result with the balanced teams set up and seeing all our players played very well in this tournament.
The HK Selects U10 Blue Team had their 1st win against the Bangkok Grizzly Bears Team by 6-1. The second game was against our own U10 White Team, a very intense game where the 2 goalkeepers shone and U10 White Team won 2-1 in the last. On Day 3, our U10 Blue Team dominated the local team Singapore Ice Dragons in this tournament with an 11-1 win. To get back get the ticket to the final, our U10 Blue team must defeat ASL All Stars Team which was a selection of players from HK and Korea. Without giving any chance to this team, our U10 Blue Team won the game with a score of 6-1.
For the HK Selects U10 White Team, the first time that they won over the HK Selects U10 Blue Team was with a score of 2-1. Less pressure in the second game as the team won 8-0 against Singapore Ice Dragons Team. In the third game, the team in lack of success in front of the net struggled to win against the Bangkok Grizzly Bear Team with a score of 3-2. For the last round Robin game and to make a clear round, we have to get rid of ASL All Star Team. With the solid win of 3-0, it was a no-fault for our U10 White Team.
The U10 final of this tournament was therefore the HK Selects U10 White Team vs HK Selects U10 Blue Team. And, what a Final! An incredible game with 2 very good teams, no winner in regulation time, and it is therefore in extra time that HK Selects U10 White Team wins with the score of 5-4. In U10, the objective was to take everyone to the Final, and the mission is accomplished… We can and we should all be happy with this result.
Recap by Coach Matti :
As Singapore is losing their rink this summer, it was awesome to play in JCube one last time! Our HK Selects U12 Team got a perfect start for the tournament going undefeated and not scored against in the first 4 games against; Indonesia, Singapore Blue and White and ASL all Stars. No goals against 4 games in a row were accomplishments for the players to be proud of. In the final game against ASL All Stars, we got stuck in the beginning with a slow tempo and a couple of very unnecessary penalties. ASL took advantage scoring the first and only goal of the game, and even after great 3rd-period pressure, we could not come back to the game anymore. Silver medal and 1 goal scored in the whole tournament were disappointing, but plenty of good things happened that we can take home with us. Preparation for the next big event Hong Kong hockey 5’s is already underway.
