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  • Rag-tag team seeks puck of the Irish

    Globe and Mail, Canada
    March 17 2004

    Rag-tag team seeks puck of the Irish



    By ALLAN MAKI
    >From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

    This was the summary from yesterday's big hockey game in Iceland:
    Mexico 8, Ireland 3. Ireland's first two goals were scored by a
    Russian defenceman. The Irish also got a goal from a left winger who
    just happens to be a tennis pro who lives and coaches in Dublin.

    But forget about that for a moment. Yesterday is done. Today is the
    day that matters. Today is the day the tennis playing Larry Jurovich
    and his Irish teammates have been thinking about for months; the day
    they can do themselves and all Ireland proud by scoring their first
    victory at a world hockey championship and on St. Patrick's Day, no
    less.

    All they have to do is beat Armenia. Beat Armenia on St. Paddy's Day
    and, guaranteed, Irish hockey will have its galvanizing moment, its
    1972 Summit Series, its 1980 Winter Olympics; also a good excuse to
    drink green beer.

    Mind you, just making it to the 2004 International Ice Hockey
    Federation Division III world championship in Reykjavik is a major
    accomplishment for this Irish team. Ireland has little history and no
    burning connection to the game. It has even less when it comes to
    youth hockey. As for permanent rinks, you can count them on two
    fingers (the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and the International Ice Bowl
    in Dundonald).

    That so few given so little could get to a world championship is a
    tribute to the Irish team's spirit, its raw athleticism and, of
    course, a bunch of puck-crazed Canadians.

    You didn't think there'd be a hockey story without some Canadian
    content, did you? Jurovich, the tennis ace and goal-scoring left
    winger, was born in Vancouver. He is now a naturalized Irish citizen
    who serves as the high-performance coach for Tennis Ireland.
    Centreman John White is a 44-year-old Dublin-born Canadian who says
    he played his minor hockey in Brantford, Ont., with none other than
    Wayne Gretzky. Garrett MacNeill, another Dublin-born Canadian, plays
    defence for the Manhattanville College Valiants, an NCAA Division III
    school in New York.

    Then there are the coaches, Greg Fitzgerald and Jim Graves, both of
    whom hail from the true north strong and free and now reside in
    Dublin. Rounding out the rest of the roster are seven players from
    Belfast, nine from Dublin and Dimitry Slavashevsky, the 34-year-old
    defenceman whose parents came from Minsk, perhaps to get away from
    hockey.

    If the Irish lineup seems more than a wee bit quirky, consider what
    the players had to go through in preparation for the world
    championship. At first, they practised in Dublin, where the last
    permanent arena was shut down four years ago. They practised
    outdoors, on a non-regulation-size rink, after they'd finished work.
    During Christmas, the players practised outdoors at midnight, after
    all the public skaters had gone home. They did this three times a
    week until they figured there had to be a better way, and there was.
    Sort of.

    What the Dublin-based players did was climb into their vehicles and
    drive 21/2 hours north to Belfast, two, sometimes three times a week,
    for on-ice sessions. They did this when they weren't doing off-ice
    workouts at the national boxing club or in-line skating to stay in
    shape.

    "We may not have a rink, and we may lack game experience, but we'll
    have the best fitness possible," team captain Mark Bowes promised.

    Bowes is the general secretary of the Irish Ice Hockey Association.
    He and president/defenceman Cliff Saunders have done their part to
    promote the game in Ireland, a game that Saunders has described as "a
    cross between hurling and skating with the excitement of both." (No
    word on what Saunders thought of the Todd Bertuzzi incident, which
    made a lot of Canadians think about hurling, too.)

    Just how well Ireland will do at the Division III world championship
    is an exercise in wishful thinking. Five years ago, the country sent
    a team to the European under-18 junior championship in Bulgaria and
    failed to win a game. Five players from that team played yesterday
    against Mexico in a game in which the Irish were tied 2-2 after one
    period, down a goal after two periods but badly outscored in the
    third.

    But to the likes of Slavashevsky and Jurovich and everyone else on
    the emerald team, yesterday's loss is over and done. Today is all
    that matters; the day they can down Armenia and make their mark. That
    it could happen on St. Patrick's Day has presented them with an
    opportunity they've been dreaming about for months.

    The question now is: Is there a Paul O'Henderson in their midst?
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