The puck drops, and the two forwards Liu and Wang fight for it. Wang hooks it out to Chen, and Chen passes to Chen who return passes it to Chen! Chen to Li. Li takes it across the line. Li can’t get past Hsieh. Li to Wang, Wang shoots! Oh! Deflection off the post! Wang gets it again. Wang to Li, Li shoots! He scores! 2-0 for the Typhoon!

It’s hockey night in Taiwan! More and more Taiwanese are playing ice hockey, part of the sport’s global growth in popularity. And -Surprise, surprise! – Canadian players and coaches are skating beside them in force.

British Columbian Ryan Lang is head coach for the Chinese Taipei Men’s International Ice Hockey Team, in the International Ice Hockey League (IIHF) Division 3. Manitoban Cullen Revel owns the company ROC Sports which manages two successful programs: The Tigers for kids under 12, and the Typhoon for older kids and young adults. Many Canadians not only coach or play themselves, but get their kids involved as well. It’s part of our national obsession, eh?

GO TIGERS, GO!

Ontarian Anthony Van Dyck – a founding board member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan – says his 10-year-old daughter Trudi plays with the Tigers. “Trudi is fascinated by the Canadian side of her culture because it’s the one side she can’t express on a daily basis.” Trudi is really into the game after finishing her first season.

TRUDI VAN DYCK:           BRAVE GIRL, NO BULL!

Van Dyck says he likes the fact that hockey develops strength of character, because the practices take a lot of effort. “Cullen Revel is really ‘Go go go!’ with the kids. He’s everything you’d expect in a Canadian coach.” He says when Trudi falls down, she always gets back up with a smile. That’s something that can come in handy as an adult. Revel says the most satisfying aspect of his job as a coach is watching the personal development of the players. Lang agrees: “It teaches you teamwork, responsibility and accountability.”

But oddly enough, the recent history of hockey in Taiwan began with a Kiwi! About 25 years ago, New Zealander Geoff Le Cren was walking through Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall when he saw someone roller-blading by. He thought: “That looks cool!” So he got involved in the sport himself, and before long was coaching local kids and had opened up a shop selling equipment. Business was so good he was hiring guys to teach skating for him. “I had one Russian guy and one Canadian guy coaching for me on weekends, and they suggested we do some hockey. I said OK, and I fell in love with the game within a year!” And so the Holiday Cup league was formed, an inline hockey league in Taiwan. They started with just 50 players and the league now has about 100 teams, says Le Cren, who is Bauer Hockey’s sports equipment distributor for Greater China and Southeast Asia. He says there are about 1800 people playing inline hockey in Taiwan overall.

But what about ICE hockey, you know, hockey? Le Cren said that during the Vietnam War, US soldiers used Taiwan as an R&R location. “One of the facilities they had was an ice rink near Yuanshan. Soldiers used to play hockey and some Taiwanese guys used to play with them.” This was the beginning.

Since then, the development of ice hockey has been perennially hampered by a shortage of rinks. Some opened only to close again in a few years, and some of those that did stay open were less than ideal. Le Cren: “There was at a rink in Sanchong that had no insulation, so all the moisture accumulated in the ceiling tiles. One day, just as my class was lacing up their ice skates, half of the ceiling collapsed in the middle of the rink. Fortunately no one was on the ice!”

Some were a lot better: one rink in Xizhi, in the basement of the Acer Building, served as the humble birthplace for a league that has become legend for expat hockey in Taiwan, the Chinese-Taipei Ice Hockey League, or CIHL. It started out on shaky grounds in 2003, but rebooted successfully in 2004, thanks to Le Cren and others. These included  local players Wayne Lin, Eddy Chang, and Michael Lee. Rich Lee was in charge of the ice facility, but the expats ran the league. It was Le Cren, Montrealer Bob Ford, and Craig Crawford from Saskatchewan who were the league’s executive officers.

When the Taipei Arena opened in 2005, with its Olympic sized hockey rink – still the only one in Taiwan – the CIHL really took off, despite a lack of protective glass for the first year. “One day, an innocent fan got a puck in the face, and the league had to pay,” Le Cren said. Then the arena put the glass up!

The teams were starved for ice time though, because to this day, only public skating is allowed from 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week. That means all hockey teams compete for the remaining morning and evening ice time not only with each other but also with figure skaters and speed skaters!

SABABA BEARS BACK IN THE CIHL DAYS: Photo by Pearl Kung

Despite this, the CIHL grew in leaps and bounds, and eventually had two divisions: a club level and a more competitive open division, where team leaders would draft players. This led to mixed teams of expats and locals, which was good for the development of hockey in Taiwan. According to Bob Ford: “It allowed the young Taiwanese who were coming into the sport a chance to play a higher, faster, more competitive level of hockey than they had previously.”

There were also some cultural readjustments that took place.

“At first, the Taiwanese players where really sensitive. If an expat drove them into the boards, or there was incidental contact and the Taiwanese player fell over, he’d be gunning for you!” Le Cren said. “Sometimes a Taiwanese player who knocked another over would go back and help him up, in the middle of play!” But gradually the local players adapted.

During the CIHL’s heyday, there were about 120-130 players in the open division, with teams coming up from Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Taichung to play on weekends.

They kept going until 2012, when suddenly, with no warning, the CIHL had all their ice time cancelled – after the season had already begun. It was a bitter blow, a puck to the pills, so to speak!

The reasons were a bit murky, but the general drift was that this was a takeover by some of the Taiwanese involved in promoting hockey who wanted to make money from the sport. So when the national hockey federation (CTIHF) tried to put together a successor league, the expat lads shunned them (Go puck yourselves!) This contributed to the new league’s failure.

The core of Canucks – along with some others – formed the Gentlemen’s Hockey Club. Others played in other clubs, or stopped playing ice hockey. The guys from Taichung, Chiayi and Kaohsiung no longer showed up. “It was like the breakup of the Soviet Union!” says Ottawan Alex Whalen, hockey stalwart and owner of Whalen’s restaurant, which sponsors the Gentlemen’s Hockey Club. “Everyone just went off in their own direction.”

A couple of years later, a local lady named Betty Liu started the Taipei International Hockey League (TIHL). The former CIHL lads joined and actively promoted her effort. The two division system was adopted again, and now there are four teams in the open league operating on a draft system: the Venom, the Black Bears, the Clouded Leopards, and the Snow Leopards. The ex-CIHL guys say that Liu is good at getting them ice time. Sweet!

TAIPEI ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE, TIHL – Photo: James Liao

So like little Trudi, when expat hockey was knocked down, it got back up with a smile. And Canadians are leading the way.

Ryan Lang, who coaches the men’s international team, says that Taiwanese punch above their weight at hockey, for such a small country with limited facilities. According to Bob Ford, one reason for this was the CIHL. “Most of the current men’s national team were all kids that were playing in the lower division when they were 12 years old and up and then joining the open [more competitive] division when they were 16.” That’s where they played with the expat lads, elevating their game.

RYAN LANG AND A MEN’S TEAM PLAYER

Lang’s CTIHL men’s teams play in tournaments in China, Malaysia, Thailand and beyond. There they battle other regional teams who also get strong coaching, as well as better financial support than Taiwan gives its team. It’s a tough slog against countries like China that are building ice rinks at a furious rate, Lang says, but: “Our under-18 team won a bronze last year at a big tournament. That’s a big deal. We were pretty stoked about that!”

STOKED!

Ontarian Steven Clark, ex-CIHL player and current TIHL player, is the most experienced hockey player in Taiwan. “Clarky” played varsity hockey at Michigan State University, one stop shy of the NHL. He said there is an elite Taiwan Typhoon team that is distinct from the regular program run by Revel. “We got all the best players in Taiwan together,” says Clark. “We used to be the most feared hockey team in Asia.” Clark says they won several major international tournaments, but it’s getting harder. “I’m 36 years old now. Some of the teams we play against have ex-pros from Europe. It’s been a few years since we’ve won a tournament. I’d really like to win one more!”

Canadian Trade Official Tom Cumming played with the Gentlemen’s Club in Taipei, and his two sons played for the Tigers. He also took them to many tournaments in the region. Cumming is moving on (Happy trails, Tom!) to his next posting, Guangzhou, South China, where hockey has yet to take off. “It’s like starting at ground zero. I am not even sure if there is a rink there,” said Cumming. “But I made a promise to my son. I’ll do whatever I can to get ice hockey going there. After all, it’s my duty as a Canadian!”

SPORTS SHRINE AT WHALEN’S: I THINK HE’S TURNING TAIWANESE!