Norway victorious at home ice sledge hockey tournament

Norway showed their form in their opening games of the season at home between 18-20 November, claiming victory in the Norway Ice hockey Federation Ice Sledge Hockey Invitational in Skien.

However it took a loss to Italy on penalties in their opening game on Friday (18 November) to jolt Norway into action.

Italy’s Gianluigi Rosa forced the game into overtime with the leveller in the third period, bringing the score to 3-3. Both teams failed to make their mark, leaving Christoph Depaoli to find the net during penalties for Italy to win 3-4.

Italy also played Sweden on Friday, with Florian Planker scoring twice to take his team to a 2-1 victory and give them the overnight momentum.

When Norway faced Sweden on Saturday (19 November), they had returned to their best form.

Loyd Remi Solberg bagged a hat trick for the hosts, contributing to their 9-2 win. Both Emil Vatne and Audun Bakke also scored twice.

Italy took Norway to overtime on Saturday afternoon, thanks to a third period goal from Planker. However Norway were determined not to lose face on their home ice, with Bakke and Solberg carrying them out of the danger zone with penalty scores to secure a 3-2 win.

Norway concluded their campaign on Sunday (20 November), claiming a 0-3 win over Sweden.

Magnus Bogle scored twice in the second period. Thomas Avdal rounded off the scoring, assisted by Bakke.

"Winning always feels good, specially when its winning over multiple games as we did in the weekend to secure the trophy," Bogle said.

"I think our performances changed between really good to sloppy, which isnt so strange considering it was our first games since the European Championships [in April]. But we showed some of our potential from time to time and that exciting things are happening in the team."

Bogle said that Norway's next competition will be at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Charlottetown, Canada, from 4-10 December.

In their concluding game, Italy’s offensive play was impressive in their 2-7 win against Sweden. Valerio Corvino scored twice, whilst Eusebiu Antochi was once again a star player; he found the net twice.

Depaoli was also a key player, scoring Italy’s seventh and final goal in the third period. Robin Meng was the scorer of both of Sweden’s goals.

The next major international tournament for ice sledge hockey will be the 2016 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships B-Pool in Tomakomai, Japan, from 28 November – 3 December.

Teams from Slovakia, Great Britain, Czech Republic and hosts Japan will go for gold. The top three teams will also progress to the Qualification Tournament for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.