The action is fast, furious and exciting with players and the barriers taking some hard knocks. And Hong Kong fans can expect to see this for the entire 2013-14 season of the China Ice Hockey League (CIHL) played at Mega Ice.
The season started on Saturday Oct 5 and will continue each Saturday evening from 8.00pm to 11.30pm through to Mar 22, with short gaps for Christmas/New Year and Chinese New Year.
There are four teams in the league: South China Sharks, Kowloon Warriors, Hong Kong Tycoons and Macau Aces—with teams all comprising mainly international players from Europe, USA and Canada, the standard is quite high.
In the first week’s matches Hong Kong Tycoons took on Macau Aces, while Kowloon Warriors battled with South China Sharks.
The Tycoons had the edge against the Macau Aces early in the match and pulled out a 2-1 lead, but a spirited Macau came back to force a draw 2-2 at full time. But the Aces regained the ascendancy in a sudden death winner to make it 3-2 mid-way through the 3.00 minute period of extra time.
Meanwhile, Kowloon Warriors took an early lead, but South China Sharks soon pulled this back and were leading 2-1 at the end of the first period. The Sharks added another two goals in the second period. Although Warriors also scored making it 4-2, the Warriors were always just behind as the Sharks nudged the score forward to 5-3, 5-4 with the final score 6-4.
