Fifth place finish for Bermuda Selects

By Don Burgess

(Sports from 2002-06-14 Edition)

The Bermuda Selects ball hockey team placed fifth at the 2002 World and European Cup Street Hockey Championships in Germany.

The event featured 12 club teams from six countries.  The Bermuda Selects won four games during their tour, including a much anticipated exhibition rematch against the German National Team, comprised of the best ball hockey players across Germany. This was a rematch from last year’s World Championships in Toronto when both teams competed for the B Pool Gold Medal. In spite of not playing an international match since their last meeting with Germany, the Bermuda squad repeated with another upset victory by the same score 2 to 1.

“We did not expect much at all from this game,” said Bermuda Coach Bill Starr. “Our main focus was tournament play and we approached this game as our ‘tune-up’ opportunity to get ourselves ready. But when we entered the arena and saw the stands filling up, we soon realized how important this game meant to our hosts. “I think their loss to us last year was a huge blow to their programme. Both their players and fans wanted redemption.”

Both teams played to a 0-0 draw after two periods of play until midway in the second period when Eric Bertrand put the Bermuda squad on the scoreboard. Bertrand fed a pass to line mate Chad Critchley midway in the third period to put the Bermuda squad up two goals. Bad penalties created a spark for the German squad when a power play shot deflected from the blue line found its way past Bermuda goalie John Cowan, providing a door opening for the host team to mount a comeback. Cowan would come up big late in the game making several key stops, including a penalty shot save with his blocker with only 30 seconds remaining.

The Bermuda team opened up tournament play with a 4-3 victory over the host squad Rosenheim Wildboys. The win secured an advance to the next round which meant their next game against Skoda Pilzen from Czech Republic was played for positioning in the second round. A tough 7-0 loss to this team meant Bermuda needed to win their third tournament game against a team from Slovakia, the heavy favourites to win the tournament. The Bermuda squad lost a nail-biter game by a score of 1-0.

Starr said despite the outcome, this game was much closer than the score showed. Bermuda dominated most of the game, peppering the Slovak goalie with many shots, but could not find an opening. This game represented somewhat of a victory for Bermuda and a bit of a scare for Slovakia. The loss meant that the best Bermuda could place in the tournament was fifth place and they needed to win their remaining two games to achieve this goal. They did just that, beating SHC Grenchen from Switzerland by a score of 2-1 and then shutting out City Club United from Austria by two goals. 

Bermuda Selects goalie, John Cowan, was selected to the first all- tar team of the tournament with his strong play. Cowan received the same award last year at the World Championships in Toronto.