SOFIA – It seems like a fairy tale, and it is almost too good to be true. However, it is reality and not fiction. The Belgian U18 women's national team has won silver at the World Ice Hockey Championship Division 2, Group B in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Without a doubt a great achievement since it is the first time in Belgian ice hockey history that a women's team has been sent to an U18 World Championship.
Coach Tim Vos is almost speechless: “What a team! What a performance by these girls. This is promising for the future of women's ice hockey. We are going to see some nice things from them,” a very satisfied coach from Sofia.
The Belgian girls started their World Championship campaign with a lot of effort against Iceland and surprised their opponents by ending the game in a draw. After Over Time, the first victory could be pocketed. It gave them wings.
The second game was won surprisingly smoothly against Estonia. The Belgians dominated the entire game and prevented the Estonians from scoring.
Against Kazakhstan, the girls knew it was going to be tough. After all, the opponent was relegated from a higher division and was therefore the favorite, a role that the team fulfilled by eventually taking gold and thus promoting back. It was a difficult game. For a moment there turned out to be a water chance because at the end of the second period the Belgians went to the dressing room leading the game 3-2. In the last period, however, our girls had to recognize their superior in Team Kazakhstan.
After the narrow defeat against Kazakhstan, New Zealand was then beaten and finally host country Bulgaria was also put aside. With the well-known result: beautiful shiny silver!
After the men's U20, which also took silver last month, it’s the second silver Worlds campaign for the RBIHF in a row!
Track Record & Team MVPs
26.01.2023
ISL vs. BEL: 2-3 OT Victory
Team MVP vs ISL: Jirne Wagemans #8
27.01.2023
BEL vs. EST: 7-0 Victory
Team MVP vs EST: Abby Azitemina Kudidila #23
29.01.2023
KAZ vs. BEL: 5-3 Defeat
Team MVP vs KAZ: Anke Steeno #9
31.01. 2023
BEL vs. NZL: 3-2 Victory
Team MVP vs NZL: Anouk Belmans #25
01.02.2023
BUL vs. BEL: 4-6 Victory
Team MVP vs BUL: Louise Paulissen #17