Slovak Women Roll Bulgaria 82-0 in Olympic Hockey Qualifiers

I am not sure what to think of the latest news coming out of the IIHF over in Latvia where the Women's qualifying tournament where the winner would get an automatic entry in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. I didn't even know that there was even a women's hockey team in Slovakia!

But in 2006, I had criticized Women's Team Canada and rallied around team USA's criticism of the Canadian Women running up the score. But when one of my teams does it, I am in a load of public relations trouble and my back is to the spin wall.

Janka Culikova led Slovakia with 10 goals, while Martina Velickova scored nine. Fourteen different players scored at least one goal.

Well, it is nice to see that a lot of the players got involved with this one? And what the hell happened to Bulgaria? Did they go open net the whole game?

The best defense I could come up with was actually another person's reply on a popular hockey blog. The main counter-argument to the "running up the score" scenario is that the Lady Slovaks couldn't lay down and stall for time in the game. Were they expected to play keep away the whole game? No. They played until the final horn. It wasn't their fault that the Bulgarian women were not prepared at all.

Basically, I do not think that any hockey fan, any womens hockey fan, or any Slovak patriot can be proud of this game's turnout. I bet after the 20th goal, things just weren't fun anymore. The Bulgarians were deep on the wrong side of pathetic.

The last defense of the Lady Slovaks for this obliteration comes in the fact that both the Lady Italians beat them 41-0 and the Lady Croats beat them 30-1. So, folks, Bulgaria was just not ready to play at all.

However, there is a bright light of good to come of this

Slovakia, which also beat Croatia, Latvia and Italy, advanced to another qualifying group with Germany, Kazakhstan and France. The winner will secure a spot at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

I have never seen the Lady Slovaks in Olympic play mainly because they are a very young program. I hope they are able to make the 2010 games so that more generations will help grow the women's program in Slovakia and perhaps it will be as strong as the mens.


[Via: The Associated Press]