82-0

by James Mirtle on Sep 7, 2008 11:44 PM CDT Comment 24 comments

The women's pre-Olympic hockey qualification tournament going on in Liepaja, Latvia, and Maribor, Slovenia, this week is pretty far, far off the radar, but it's hard to miss a boxscore like this.

Here's the Reuters brief from Saturday's game between Slovakia and Bulgaria:

Slovakia crushed Bulgaria 82-0 in a 2010 Winter Olympics qualifier in the Latvian town of Liepaja. Bulgaria conceded a goal every 44 seconds after losing 30-1 to Croatia and 41-0 to Italy.

It's a good thing Canada's not in the group.

The game was 7-0 after five minutes, 19-0 after 10, and an incredible 31-0 after only one period. Down 77-0 with three minutes to go, Bulgaria put in its backup goaltender, who promptly let in another five goals on five shots in just 1:25 of playing time.

The game's final shots on goal were 139-0. Slovakia had 12 players record hat tricks, including one 10-goal scorer, one nine-goal scorer and four others with eight. Every skater was plus-22 or better, and forward Maria Herichova led the points parade with 18. Two Bulgarians finished the game minus-39.

The IIHF has some good info on Bulgaria's hockey prowess. A nation of about 7.4 million, they have just 299 registered hockey players and only three indoor rinks.

There are only 37 female players in the entire country. (Canada has about 74,000.)

And they say women's hockey isn't competitive internationally?

UPDATE Deadspin's having some fun with this one.

UPDATE "What the Slovaks did to us was kind-of an insulting mockery, and is not at all sportsmanlike," the Chair of the Bulgarian Hockey Federation Dobromir Krustev commented after the game.

Apparently there were fewer than 40 fans in the crowd for this barnburner. The score has also been confirmed as a record for a women's event.

UPDATE A few Bulgarian news sources are picking up the story today, and they're calling it "one of the biggest defeats in sporting history" and "nothing short of a national embarrassment."
.

0 recs | Comment 24 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

It's pretty bad when the Italians beat you by forty goals. Yikes.

by Jimmy Jazz on Sep 8, 2008 3:15 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Women's hockey :o
Well ok, let all the flowers bloom, or how it went.

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 5:13 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

While we are on the other side of the pond why not check what our old friend Chris Simon is up to?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YZe3X-gCk

KHL looks like a real threat to NHL just about now, no? Btw, all 2.000 fans hated it.

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 6:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

There aren't words to describe a beatdown of that magnitude.

You'll never see that again.

by Whale4ever on Sep 8, 2008 6:55 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Why such lopsided scores? Is goal differential a factor in the standings? Not a good way to increase the popularity of your sport.

by Matt on Sep 8, 2008 7:15 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

1) Guess there isn't a mercy rule/score for women's hockey? Geez once it got to like 25 they should have ended the nonsense.

by FAUX RUMORS on Sep 8, 2008 7:32 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

And they say women's hockey isn't competitive internationally?

82-0 doesn't seem competitive to me.

by Chemmy on Sep 8, 2008 9:36 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, I thought this post was going to be about the Red Wings' projected record with Hossa in the lineup :P

by Earl Sleek on Sep 8, 2008 11:33 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm kidding, obviously.

by James Mirtle on Sep 8, 2008 11:35 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, I thought this post was going to be about the Red Wings' projected record with Hossa in the lineup :P

The redwings actually stand to have an even better record as they'll get some bonus wins for being so handsome.

I'm really hoping that there are no major injuries in hogtown this year and that they just don't win on good, old fashion, dropping the ball. Sigh. A boy can dream at least.

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 12:09 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, I thought this post was going to be about the Red Wings' projected record with Hossa in the lineup :P

SOMETHING needs to compensate for the Detroit Lions! :)

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 12:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That is nothing short of mindbloggling.

by Nick on Sep 8, 2008 4:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Did Ellen and Portia ref this game?

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 4:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Not sure what the Chair of the Bulgarian Hockey Federation expected Slovakia to do. I guarantee the Slovaks gave LOTS of ice to their 3rd, 4th, 5TH lines, and weren't playing the game like it was 0-0 overtime Game 7 for The Cup. Were they supposed to just skate around and do their best Harlem Globetrotters' impersonation? Doesn't sound like Bulgaria's, uh, "goaltenders" could even stand up on skates. And ZERO shots?

I just LOVE when losing team reps jump over other teams when scores get out of hand. Sometimes it's a justified complaint, but oftimes it's just a matter of "Want to stop tht bleeding? Get Better!"

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 6:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

57 saves is amazing.

by Anonymous on Sep 8, 2008 7:24 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

My question is, what's with the match penalties and misconducts at the end of the game? I guess when you're down by 82, you want the send a message for next time, but really?

by Doogie2K on Sep 9, 2008 12:08 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Maybe the Kings can sign that backup goalies for a few $M to bring themselves up to the floor.

by JoBu on Sep 9, 2008 11:25 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, you mean this is an ICE hockey tournament?

by hockeywanderer on Sep 9, 2008 3:24 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

57 saves is amazing.

All due respect to Faux, saskhab, Doogie et al, but this is one of the best comments I've seen here in a while

/adding nothing to the conversation

by The Gate To The Groin For Yannick Bertrand on Sep 9, 2008 6:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Do these ladies know how to skate? Maybe not! Maybe they could barely stand up with skate shoes! That's the only way a team could possibly lose 82-0. That's more than 1 goal per minute, for the entire 60 minutes of play! I think even without any opponent at all standing in between your team and the goal, and one team playing by themselves, it may not be so easy to score that quickly and frequently. Imagine, place a puck in the center, play, shoot, goal!!, skate to the goal to pick up the puck, place in the center, play, shoot......!! keep doing this for 82 times!! it's a form of torture already!

Women's ice hockey should not be in the Olympics. With only 37 rgistered (female) players in the country and the country could still send a "national team" to the Olympic qualifiers. It's a joke!! This simply shows the shallowness of women's sports, not juct ice hockey but sports in general, but because of some political pressure from feminists, we are supposed to treat these gals as if they are serious "athletes" and representing a nation. This is a complete insult to other serious male athletes who have played sports for years, endured hard training, and go through extremely competitive games to reach Olympics. I guess that most of these Bulgarian gals must have just started ice hockey recently, because there were some incentive plan or pressure or laws to increase women's sports/teamsplayers in the country or because the gals thought it was an easy way to be on a "national team" and compete for the Olympics. If you are born a male in Bulgaria and play football, there is probably one in million chances that you would make it to the national team, but if you are a female and chose sport wisely, your chance of being in a "national team" and enjoy all the entitlements, fame, glory that come with it, is not just great, but it is automatically assured. Only 37 registered female players in the country.

by sorenlerby on Sep 9, 2008 11:02 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

oh my Goodness this is sad 82-0 Jordan and the bull went 72-10 thats like giving up 1000 pts in basketball

by Anonymous on Sep 10, 2008 1:54 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm sorry, but even if the qualifier for the first playoff round is a +/- there is no need to score that many goals, any of the games. Sometimes you see the Canadian women destroying a team but after the first little while it is obvious they have won and take their foot off the gas and just pass the puck around kill the clock. These scores are just brutal and completly unsportsman like.

by Anonymous on Sep 10, 2008 12:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs