(Photo Credit : Singapore Ice Hockey Association)
3rd July : The Singapore U20 National Ice Hockey Team has clinched a historic silver medal for the country in their maiden international tournament in the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 Asia and Oceania Championship. The week long tournament was organised by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the worldwide governing body for ice hockey.
Hosted by Thailand in Bangkok from 25 June 2022 to 2 July 2022, Singapore competed under Group B against Hong Kong (China), India and Indonesia while Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and United Arab Emirates played under Group A.
The Republic was off to a roaring start, sweeping through their first two matches with a 5-1 win against Indonesia in the first game on Saturday, 25 June 2022 - all goals scored by 18-year-old Player Number 97 Joshua Chan, who won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award from Singapore. Joshua was assisted by 19-year-old Captain and Player Number 76 Cael Chua together with 17-year-old Player Number 7 Matthew Hamnett for the 4th goal and by 15-year-old Player Number 19 Noah Blakney for the last goal.
(Photo Credit : Singapore Ice Hockey Association)
Their 2nd match against India on Sunday (26 June) was a landslide victory of 10-1, with five goals once again by Joshua, two goals by Noah (both assisted by Joshua), and individual goals by 16-year-old Player Number 17 Benedict Qian, 17-year-old Player Number 47 Markus Lee (assisted by Player Number 94 Muthukumar Karthikeyan) and Cael Chua (assisted by Muthukumar). MVP of the match for Singapore went to Markus.
In the final game under Group B on Tuesday (28 June), Singapore put up a tough fight but lost 7-4 to Hong Kong. 15-year-old Player Number 87 Javen Tan put in the first goal in this match assisted by Cael. Benedict Qian and MVP of the match scored two goals, assisted by 18-year-old Vice-captain and Player Number 55 Ryan Goh who scored one unassisted goal on his own in the same match. Benedict's other goal was assisted by 18-year-old Player Number 29, Gabriel Lim.
Singapore competed next with Malaysia from Group A for the quarter finals on Wednesday (29 June), winning 2-1 in overtime both scored by Joshua and Cael was named MVP of the game.
In the semi-finals on Friday (1 July) Singapore won 4-3 against the United Arab Emirates with a goal from Benedict and a hat-trick by Joshua Chan. MVP award went to Ryan Goh.
Team Singapore went ahead and put up a tough fight in the gold medal game with Thailand on 2 July, narrowly losing the championship title with score of 4-3 and goals put in by Benedict (assisted by Joshua), Joshua Chan, Markus Lee (assisted by Cael). 17-year-old goalkeeper Joshua Lee won the MVP award for the finals match.
With 16 goals and 3 assists under his belt, Joshua Chan emerged overall top scorer and top in ranking among skaters with fellow teammate Benedict at position 30. Joshua was also awarded the prestigious MVP of the overall championship. For goalkeepers, the Republic’s goalie Joshua Lee took the top ranking in the entire tournament saving 91.67% of shots on goal!
(MVP of the Championship, TeamSG's Joshua Chan. Photo Credit : Singapore Ice Hockey Association)
Official tournament page: https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2022/aom20
Videos: https://www.facebook.com/thailandtv.tv/