World Championship Ice Hockey Division III. Kockelscheuer. Luxembourg, Friday 11 April 2014. But arriving at the ice rink is not easy. After a couple of hours drive I pass the Luxembourg border. Immediately I am confronted with congestion messages. I see the cars in front of me coming to a standstill and I have just time to exit the highway at Mamer/Capellen. Only to get stuck in the congestion on the N6 to Luxembourg City. But luckily the more southern route over Dippach and Bettembourg - where I can fill up gasoline (132,3 Euro a liter) - to Kockelscheuer is congestion free. Outside the trees blossomed, but inside the ice was perfect in spite of the warm weather.

So I didn't arrive in time for the start of the first match: Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea versus The United Arab Emirates. As I entered the Kockelscheuer ice rink the clock says 6.59, period 2. So the match is 33.01 minute old. The score is 1-6 in favour of Korea. To my surprise the Abu Dhabi based team can skate, but setting up play is a different story. Korea can. And scores a powerplay goal before the second tea. The Arab team gets tired and cough up another five goals for a 1-12 Korea win.

In the second match Hong Kong faced off against Bulgaria. A tight team effort by the Hong Kong team led to a 1-1 score after twenty minutes. Better team play and some above average players made the difference in this encounter. Hong Kong 1; Bulgaria 6. These 2 matches were free to attend. The main dish, being the evening game of Team Luxembourg (on this Friday against Team Georgia) was priced at 15 Euros.

Attendance for the first 2 matches was slightly more than 100 people. For the Team Luxemburg game 850 fans turned up. There was still, place to accomodate more spectators. But maybe Georgia is not the most appealing opponent.

The game winning goal in the match Luxembourg against Georgia was scored after only 22 seconds. The players of the Georgian National team could skate, but lacked in stickhandling ability. It was all one way traffic to the Georgian goal. Via 0-7, 0-6 and 0-6 Lėtzebuerg crashed its opponent, 0-19. The Bofferding beer stand outside the arena was the focus of attraction after the encounter. And everything supervised by IIHF Tournament Chairman, the Swede Christer Englund.

Detailed reports of these 3 matches and photos to follow.

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