2008 World Championships - Div. III, March 31 - April 6, 2008 - Luxembourg Options

[AEKAlex]

There are no topics about the National Ice Hockey Team that represents Greece so I decided Id start one where people could discuss hockey in Greece. The team gets very little help from the government. They dont even have a profesional ice rink (Albania is the only other county in Europe that does not have a proper rink). They recently participated at the qualifying tournament for the world championships organized by the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation). They played some good games with some very good performances.

In the end, they came fifth but despite this they:
-Had the top scorer at the tournament, Dimitri Kalyvas, with 12 points.
-Dimitri Kalyvas also scored the most goals of the tournament, with 10 goals.
-Second most assists of the tournament was from Nikos Papadopoulos with 8 assists.
-The top scoring defenseman of the tournament was also Nikos Papadopoulos, who had 8 points.
-Three Greeks (Kalyvas, Ioannis Koufis, and Nikos Papadopoulos) were in the top 15 of the scoring leaders of the tournament.
-The third best goalie of the tournament was a Greek, Dalibor Ploutsis.
-A Greek scored what was called the best goal of the tournament, and it was scored by none other than Nikos Papadopoulos.

We beat Mongolia 10-4, and their last game of the tournament we came back from a 2 goal deficit and tied it but unfortunately, we lost in the penalty shootout.

Well Done Greece, you represented the country well, considering how little support you all receive from the government.

They funded the entire trip from money out of their own pockets.

Iptameni Hockey Club won the Greek Championship this year.