World Sledge Hockey Challenge takes to ice

The tournament will run through Saturday (8 December), with three days of preliminary round games followed by semi-final and medal games at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Canada.

Host nation Canada will go for their fifth World Sledge Hockey Challenge gold when the event begins on Sunday (2 December), with USA, Norway and Japan trying to dethrone the tournament’s reigning champions.

The tournament will run through Saturday (8 December), with three days of preliminary round games followed by semi-final and medal games at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Canada.

The event will be the season opener for the four teams.

Canada, silver medallists at last season’s A Pool World Championships, will be led by veteran stars Greg Westlake and Brad Bowden, while forward Alexi Salamone and defender Taylor Chace will anchor defending world and Paralympic champions, USA.

Japan have had a lot of their core group of players retire in the last couple of years, so head coach Kojin Nakakita has a tall task ahead of him, while one of the world’s best in the game, Rolf Pedersen will look to lead Norway for another year.

Fans can watch the games for free here.

Here’s the complete schedule of games in Calgary:

Sunday (2 December)

Norway-USA, 12:00

Japan-Canada, 16:00

Monday (3 December)

Canada-Norway, 12:00

Japan-USA, 19:00

Wednesday (5 December)

Norway-Japan, 12:00

USA-Canada, 19:00

Thursday (6 December)

Semi-final 1, 12:00

Semi-final 2, 19:00

Saturday (8 December)

Bronze-medal game, 12:00

Gold-medal game, 17:00

Related Images

Imagen

Caption

Together, forward Alexi Salamone and defender Taylor Chace have become the faces of the USA's ice sledge hockey programme.

Imagen

Caption

Norway celebrates winning bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.