Hockey Around The World

Hockey history was made earlier this year:

In late April a handful of youngsters from the Greek Cypriot side of the island of Cyprus, commanded by a combative Irishman, crossed the border of Cyprus, the Green Line, to face an army of Turks armed with sticks.

No, this was not an incident of guerrilla warfare, but a historic premiere: the first ever hockey match to be played on the island between the only two existing teams; the Solar Bears from Limassol and the Famagusta Ice Crows.

I always find stories of hockey in non-traditional countries interesting. Bill Meltzer has an excellent collection of such articles called "Across The Pond" on NHL.com. Here's a few direct links.

• Mexico
• Australia
• Croatia
• Asia

And here is a complete listing of champions from every hockey playing country in the world.

IIHF.com's website also has a look at hockey in Iceland.

Of course, the National Hockey League is sending six teams over to Europe to play exhibition games and even regular season games this pre-season.
Six clubs -- the Boston Bruins, Phoenix Coyotes, Minnesota Wild, Carolina Hurricanes, San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets -- will play a total of seven games throughout Europe as they prepare to open the regular season overseas in the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere.

The Bruins, making their first overseas appearance in 50 years, will play pre-season games in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Oct. 2 and Liberec, Czech Republic on Oct. 5 in advance of the their two-game regular-season opener against the Coyotes in Prague Oct. 9-10. The Coyotes will tune up for their showdown with the Bruins by traveling to Riga, Latvia for a game against Dinamo Riga on Oct. 6.

 The Wild and Hurricanes, who start the regular season with a two-game set in Helsinki, Finland Oct. 7-8, will prepare with pre-season games in nearby cities Oct. 4. The Wild travel north to Tampere, Finland to take on Ilves, while the Hurricanes head east to St. Petersburg, Russia for a match against SKA St. Petersburg.

The Sharks and Blue Jackets, who launch the regular season in Stockholm, Sweden with games on Oct. 8-9, each will play one pre-season contest in Europe. The Sharks visit Mannheim, Germany (vs. Adler Mannheim, Oct. 2); the Blue Jackets go to Malmo, Sweden (vs. Malmo/Rogle, Oct. 5).