Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

First win: Armenia thrashes South Africa in Ice Hockey Championships

The world’s officially worst ice hockey team, Armenia, registered Wednesday night a smashing victory over South Africa to the delight of numerous fans at a Yerevan arena hosting the 2010 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division III World Championships.

The 9-2 (4-1, 3-1, 2-0) final score reflected the domination of Armenian players on the rink throughout the game played at the Karen Demirchyan Sport and Concert Complex in the Armenian capital. In the other Day One match, North Korea beat Mongolia 22-1.

Armenia’s next rival is North Korea on Thursday evening. (See results and standings updates on the IIHF’s official website).

Division III is the lowest division in IIHF championships and is subdivided into two groups – A and B that have an equal status. Nations involved in each division hold annual tournaments competing for promotion to a higher group – the highest being the main 16-nation IIHF league that embraces the world’s leading ice hockey nations, such as Canada, Russia, USA, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and others.

Armenia has been an IIHF member since 1999. Currently, its main men’s team is officially ranked last among 48 participating nations. (See full rankings here).

After a fiasco in the 2005 World Division III Championships, including a 0-48 loss to Mexico, Armenia improved a little, achieving several victories, including over Ireland (6-0) and Luxemburg (10-6) in 2006. It was also that year that Armenia achieved its highest place in the Division, finishing third in the five-nation group, just outside the promotion spot.

http://armenianow.com/sports/other_sports/22331/armenia_scores_victory_in_ice_hockey_championship

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

2-0 now!
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Armenian ice-hockey players score victory over North Korean team
April 16, 2010 - 11:15 AMT 06:15 GMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Second round matches of Division III Ice-HockeyWorld Championships took place at Karen Demirchyan Sport & Concert Complex on April 15.

Armenian ice-hockey players beat Korean team 7:6. South African Republic vs. Monglolia match ended 12:1.

Armenia vs. Mongolia and South African Republic vs. North Korea matches are scheduled for April 17.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/sport/news/47172/Armenian_icehockey_players_score_victory_over_North_Korean_team

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Hye Hockey!: Ice Age comes to Armenia

From an air of skepticism and disbelief at the beginning to the feeling of pride and certain fulfillment at the end of what was an unlikely sporting event to be held in Armenia, local fans appeared last week to be shifting attitudes towards the future of ice hockey in their country.

Zhamkochyan, Kazanchyan, Balyan, Avetisyan (and other ‘yans’, many of whom are Diaspora raised or trained) became heroes of the ice at the Karen Demirchyan Sport and Concert Complex in Yerevan, the venue of the 2010 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division III World Championships.

The Group B event on April 14-18 pitted Armenia against three other ‘exotic’ ice hockey nations, including South Africa, North Korea and Mongolia. Cheered by the growing army of fans, Armenia beat all their rivals at the group stage and did it in style (9-2, 7-6 and 15-0, respectively), but eventually had to settle for silver after losing the final 2-5 to the Koreans.

(The gold-medal game on Sunday had attracted a full capacity crowd estimated at some 5,000, revealing at least one big logistical problem – the insufficient capacity of men’s toilets in the complex).

Such victories as well as the mere fact of Armenia hosting an international ice hockey tournament seemed unimaginable only a few years ago when the world’s “officially worst” ice hockey team was struggling to get a result that would not embarrass their few dedicated fans at home and in the Diaspora. The greatest upset came in 2005 when Armenia suffered a fiasco in the World Division III Championships, including a 0-48 loss to Mexico.

Karen Khachatryan, then president of the Armenian Ice Hockey Federation, could hardly hide the embarrassment. But the ice hockey enthusiast (who died in a road accident last summer, shortly after the announcement came that Armenia had been picked as the venue for the championships this April), still insisted that the sport had a future in the former Soviet republic. And amid other defeats came also victories…

Khachatryan’s successor Hayk Jaghatspanyan now says the world championships in Armenia have raised more hopes that ice hockey will have a future in the country.

Many attending the games at the Yerevan arena agreed with the vision of the former and current federation chiefs. But before great victories would come, they were content with what they already had – ice hockey players wearing Armenia jerseys, having ‘yan’ at the end of their names and scoring incredible goals.

Some of about a thousand or so fans attending the Saturday game between Armenia and Mongolia met with surprise (others with fear) the announcer’s warning that said: “Beware of the puck flying into the direction of the stands”.

“There were a couple of such cases at the previous game,” said one fan. “But don’t be afraid, even if it happens, it’s fun,” he added in an encouraging manner seeing the embarrassment that had come upon the faces of his companions, most of whom, apparently, were attending their first ice hockey game in life.

Ashot Minasyan, 35, had come to support Armenia along with his kid. He said it was the third ice hockey match he attended and that the tournament was a ‘learn-the-rules-as-you-go’ experience for him.

“That’s icing, that’s advantage play… too many players on the ice,” Ashot would explain to his less experienced fellow ice hockey fans, many of whom were baffled by the fact that unlike soccer a ‘handball’, or rather ‘gloving’, was a norm in ice hockey. None could understand the offside rule.

The developing action on the rink and especially goals scored by Armenia players still aroused excitement in the stands. People were phoning their friends and telling them how great the experience was and that they should also come and join them at the arena (admission was free).

And some in the foyer would already wear Armenia jerseys having Armenian names on them. Others would come well equipped for the occasion, with Armenian flags, horns and ready throats to shout: “Hayastan, Hayastan!”

“Avetisyan and Kazanchyan are my favorite players,” said one proud teenager approached by ArmeniaNow, referring to the top scorers for Armenia at the tournament. The boy, however, struggled to recall who Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux were when asked about his other possible ice hockey idols. His more experienced friend, however, came to his rescue. But he, too, erroneously identified the legends of Canadian ice hockey as Americans and was slightly wrong on their career dates.

Armenia, a former Soviet republic, did not contribute manpower to the Big Red Machine as the sport did not enjoy popularity in the country similar to that of soccer, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling or chess. But some here still remember the summit series of ice hockey battles between the Soviet team and the Canadian professionals in the 1970s that largely defined the sport standoff between the West and the USSR in the cold war era. And they also remember the glorious performances of the USSR team in the 1980s.

“The Soviet team was the best then. The Canadians and Americans feared KLM,” said Armen, a fan in his fifties, referring to the famous Soviet forward trio of Krutov, Larionov and Makarov. “I think ice hockey fits well the Armenian mindset and temperament. Who knows, perhaps one day Armenian names will also become famous in this sport.”

http://armenianow.com/sports/other_sports/22412/armenia_ice_hockey_championships

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Gagik Tsarukyan meets with Armenian ice hockey team
April 20, 2010 - 13:07 AMT 08:07 GMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - President of the Armenian National Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukyan welcomed Armenian ice hockey players at the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs on April 19.

Hailing them for good performance, Mr Tsarukyan said, “We didn’t expect such good results. You proved that ice hockey is developing in Armenia.”

In completion of the meeting, he handed the National Olympic Committee Cup to the hockey players, reported the press office of the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/sport/news/47376/Gagik_Tsarukyan_meets_with_Armenian_ice_hockey_team

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

As an avid ice hockey fan, I dream of the day Armenia gets a team in the KHL.
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Armenian Hockey: Something Has to Be Said

By: Antranig Dereyan

Armenia is still a small country in the eyes of the international sports community. Yes, it is strong in chess, weightlifting, and wrestling, did well in European competitions in those sports, and was represented at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The Armenian national football team is also doing well and looks to be on the right track to qualifying for the 2012 European Cup competition. Armenia’s sports reputation, it seems, is improving.
armenia Armenian Hockey: Something Has to Be Said

The Armenian hockey team

Then, there’s the Armenia national hockey team. Yes, Armenia has a national hockey team that plays on the international stage. Shocking, right?

A member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) since 1999, Armenia, who plays in Division III, the lowest division of international hockey, has a long way to go if they want to join teams like Sweden, Russia, and Canada in Division I and play in the Olympics.

Currently ranked 49th out of 49 teams, Armenia has had more than a few difficulties that has kept it from competing in games and tournaments. In 2003, the team wasn’t able to play in the D-III World Championship tournament, held in New Zealand, after failing to secure visas to enter the country. In the 2004 and 2005 D-III World Championship, the team finished last both times; it lost the 2005 game to team Mexico with an unimaginable score of 48-0. In 2006, Armenia won its first two games in team history by defeating Ireland and Luxembourg, raising the team’s confidence heading into 2007.

Yet, for unknown reasons, it once again missed out on the World Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although it was registered to compete.

During the games in 2005-06, the IIHF, suspicious about the citizenship of Armenia’s players, conducted a thorough investigation. Armenia, it turned out, had submitted falsified documents about its Armenian American players, stating they had applied for or held Armenian citizenship. They didn’t, which meant Armenia was playing ineligible players. The team was immediately put on probation.

Having not played an official game since 2006, it was a bit shocking they were selected to host the 2010 D-III World Championships in Yerevan’s Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex (built in 2008 and named after the former president of the Armenian Hockey Federation, who died tragically in a car accident in 1999).

“The ice rink at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex has enabled us to hold games in Armenia,” said Hayk Jaghatspanyan, the current president of the Armenian Ice Hockey Federation, in an interview just before the tournament.

To prepare, most of the players trained together—not in Armenia but in the United States. “Fourteen team members and I live and train in Los Angeles where I have at least three training sessions a week with a first-class coach. If we can get [in Armenia] appropriate ice hockey gear and coaches, we are ready to train in Armenia and develop this sport here,” said Manuk Balian, a 30-year-old veteran of the Armenian team, in an interview before the start of the World Championship.

In a warm-up game on April 12 in Yerevan, Armenia took on Georgia and beat them 22-1, giving the team a much-needed boost heading into the tournament.

Once the championship was underway, Armenia’s players showed their training had paid off by running through the competition, first beating South Africa, 9-2, then North Korea in a close match, 7-6, and then finishing their qualifying games on April 17, crushing Mongolia, 15-0.

Undefeated, the team found themselves playing North Korea—this time, for the gold medal and a promotion into Division II. It seemed Armenia was out to prove that it was better than a last-place team, and was going to quickly move up the international rankings.

Its fellow countrymen began to show an interest in the sport, although they still needed to learn the game. (Numerous stories came out of Armenia about spectators heading out of the arena after the second period because they didn’t know that, unlike football, hockey has three periods, instead of two halves.)

On the ice, during the gold medal game, Armenia played well, scoring two goals. North Korea, however, scored five goals and defeated Armenia by three goals to capture the gold medal and an automatic promotion.

Not even expected to win a game, Armenia finished with a silver medal. But the good feeling for the team and country quickly turned into sour grapes.

In the weeks following the tournament, the IIHF permanently suspended the team from all international play, said its games in the World Championship did not count, and stripped the team of its silver medals.

Armenia was suspended for the same reason it was put on probation in the first place: It had played with ineligible American Armenian players who neither possessed dual citizenship papers, nor had applied for dual citizenship. (The Armenian Federation had sent papers to the IIHF stating that they had.)

Perhaps the IIHF officials were tipped off after hearing the players talk to each other on the ice in perfect English.

A proud move up for another Armenian national team thus took a huge blow backwards, with no timeframe for when the IIHF will reinstate it.

For Armenian Americans to play for Armenia—legally—they must simply apply for dual-citizenship. (The rules were changed after the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, after Swedish player, Ulf Samuelsson, who played for the Swedish National team from 1984 to 2000, was ruled ineligible because he had applied for U.S. citizenship while still in possession of his Swedish passport. It was later found out by the IIHF that most of the international players participating at the 1998 Winter Olympics—from Sweden, Russia, Canada, and the Czech Republic—had either applied or obtained U.S. citizenship.)

A word of caution, however, for any American Armenian hockey player thinking of taking advantage of this new rule and playing for Armenia, once the team’s reinstated: Once a player plays for an international team, s/he cannot play for another national team, ever. So, if an American Armenian plays for Armenia, s/he cannot change his mind and then play for the U.S.

Armenia, with help, can create a strong program. They have the passion and will to succeed. They cannot, however, continue to play with Americans who do not possess the proper Armenian documents. And they cannot compete without monetary support, proper equipment, and a top-of-the line ice rink. Supporting a full ice hockey program on the international stage is expensive, with equipment costing $2,000-3,000 per player on the lowest scale, and the costs associated with maintaining and operating a hockey rink. The Federation is actively seeking sponsorship as we speak. To support the Armenian hockey team, visit their website, www.armenianhockey.com.

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2011/02/18/armenian-hockey-something-has-to-be-said/

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

we have a few talented players in America now. There is Vahe Zakarian who will probably be in the next NHL draft, http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=91858. My brother's friend played in the same league as Dan Sexton of the Anaheim Ducks, who still keep in contact so you can see how good the Armenian was to have played with an NHLer. I had a cousin who was insanely good, received a scholarship to play at Minnesota but he rejected and, for some reason, decided to not play anymore. He was on Armenia's national team when the IIHF tournament took place in Armenia. He was the MVP of the tournament. My brother also knew this one guy who had made it to the AHL but kept getting traded from one team to another so he also quit because it was becoming annoying. I, also as a hockey fan, do wish the IIHF removes the suspension and allows the Armenian Americans to play for Armenia. If this happens then Armenia will move up to Division 2 and who knows maybe one day to Division 1.

[Tali]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Why didn't they learn their lesson the first time?

If the players were ineligible to play and put the team on probation the first time, all they had to do was even show effort of applying for dual citizenship (dont have to obtain it). Why did they try the same thing again, which not only stripped them of a silver medal but also of a third chance?

[Federate]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Why didn't they learn their lesson the first time?

If the players were ineligible to play and put the team on probation the first time, all they had to do was even show effort of applying for dual citizenship (dont have to obtain it). Why did they try the same thing again, which not only stripped them of a silver medal but also of a third chance?

Oh Tali, you have a thing or two to learn about Armenians

You see, we have a hard time "learning our lesson" and have a nasty habit of making the same mistakes again, thinking that maybe this time the outcome will be different. What these guys probably thought was that "there's no way we can get caught TWO times"

Armenians also dislike laws/rules that simply don't make sense to them. What they think is that "we're Armenian anyway, who cares if we don't have documentation?" And honestly, if I was talented in hockey and I had the exact same opportunity as these Armenian-American boys, not gonna lie but i'd probably do the same thing thinking I wouldn't get caught.

As for why they didn't apply for dual citizenship, i'm not sure. Money? The complicated process? Not giving a f*ck about the rules (see above paragraph)?

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Actually the problem was not the dual citizenship, the problem is they had to have played at least a year or two in Armenia. All the players are from America, they play in leagues in America. The other teams like south Africa, all the players play in south Africa. The Armenians tried to forge documents stating the players played in Armenia but all you had to do was to type in the players name on google and info about them popped up about how the league they play in America. So how could they have played in Armenia and America at the same time? That was the problem.

[Tali]

Re: Armenian National Ice Hockey Team

Oh Tali, you have a thing or two to learn about Armenians

You see, we have a hard time "learning our lesson" and have a nasty habit of making the same mistakes again, thinking that maybe this time the outcome will be different. What these guys probably thought was that "there's no way we can get caught TWO times"

Armenians also dislike laws/rules that simply don't make sense to them. What they think is that "we're Armenian anyway, who cares if we don't have documentation?" And honestly, if I was talented in hockey and I had the exact same opportunity as these Armenian-American boys, not gonna lie but i'd probably do the same thing thinking I wouldn't get caught.

As for why they didn't apply for dual citizenship, i'm not sure. Money? The complicated process? Not giving a f*ck about the rules (see above paragraph)?

so I see Federate...
but i guess this is the best way for me to learn

Actually the problem was not the dual citizenship, the problem is they had to have played at least a year or two in Armenia. All the players are from America, they play in leagues in America. The other teams like south Africa, all the players play in south Africa. The Armenians tried to forge documents stating the players played in Armenia but all you had to do was to type in the players name on google and info about them popped up about how the league they play in America. So how could they have played in Armenia and America at the same time? That was the problem.

Now that somewhat makes more sense to me.
That probably was a factor.

Regardless, it's ultimately the forging that set everyone off.

Does it seem likely they'll get a third chance?