Bogle Sparks Veteran-Heavy Norway

Norway celebrates winning bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. © • Getty Images Norwegian fans cheer on their national Ice Sledge Hockey team.

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Thomas Jacobsen: From the Sidelines

“They’re a real veteran team, but they’re very skilled and play a great team game.”

Magnus Bogle is just 16 years old and is already set to compete in a World Championship event.

The teenager will be a member of Norway’s team at the 2012 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships, which it will host in Hamar beginning on Saturday (24 March).

Bogle is now in his second season with the veteran-heavy Norwegian squad, and he is quite candid about how aggressive the sport is.

“I think it’s tough to have all the older and bigger people that can come at me,” Bogle said.

The 2011 European Championships were Bogle’s first major international competition at age 15, and just a year later, he is ready to hit the world stage as a forward on Norway’s second line.

Do his teammates think he is ready?

“They say so,” Bogle chuckled.

Stepping right in

When Bogle first joined the national squad, he was a bit taken aback by his teammates.

“I was in shock the first time I got to the dressing room because of the humour and stuff like that,” he said.

Bogle said simply the sheer size of some of the players worried him at first.

But in time, he found his place on the team and is now just one of the guys.

Despite being part of an experienced team, he is not an outlier. His age is not a factor.

In the last two major international tournaments – the 2011 European Championships and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games – Norway won bronze.

The team has finished in first or second place at every single World Championships since the event began in 1996, winning silver at the most recent edition of the event in 2009.

In Hamar, the Norwegians will have to kick it up a notch because they will be without team captain Thomas Jacobsen, who is still recovering from a serious injury from December’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Calgary, Canada.

Since Jacobsen will be sidelined for the World Championships, he said he will serve as a studio commentator for NRK, the main broadcaster in Norway.

With the talent it has, though, the host nation should not be too worried.

“They’ve got a guy Rolf Pedersen who is arguably the best player in the world,” USA’s Brad Emmerson said. “He’s really hard to shut down, and that’s a team that we’ve been able to luckily take down the last few times we’ve played. But they always play us real tight.”

Veteran heavy

All of Europe’s Ice Sledge Hockey squads are known for being finesse teams, and Norway is no different.

Bogle said he thinks Norway can take care of European Champions Italy and Korea in the round robin, but that the team’s matchup with Canada on 28 March – which Norway’s Princess Martha Louise will attend – will be quite the clash, as Canada is very aggressive on the ice and against the boards.

“It’s tough, but those competitions that are the hardest are also the most fun to play,” Bogle said. “It’s fair play, but it’s hard. Against Canada, things are more of a battle. Our hardest games are against them.”

Veteran Eskil Hagen joins Pedersen on the defensive line, and Morten Vearnes, Helge Bjornstad and Stig Tore Svee provide a power-packed group of forwards for the Norwegians up top.

“Norway is one of those teams, that since I first made the national team in 2003, has always given us a hard time,” Emmerson said. “They’re a real veteran team, but they’re very skilled and play a great team game.”

Bogle is happy to be a part of the group and is hungry for his first trip to the world podium.

“We want to get a medal,” Bogle said. “That’s the expectation for the team.”