April 2013, Cape Town, South Africa

The National Team players would like to thank all the true friends of the team, which over the years have supported and stood next to them in happy times and most difficult moments! Without your support, nothing would be possible! Thank you!

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) decided today, at the Annual Congress held in Sweden, to ban the Men’s Hellenic National Team (and all future national team of all categories) from the world championships until an Olympic sized ice rink opens in Greece. More details soon to come. 

The 2013 IIHF World Championship is over and the National Team left Cape Town with mixed feelings.

Our National team represented Greece once again in this very important international event, and had to compete against experienced opponents in conditions outside the Greek reality.

The lack of proper preparation of our athletes, had an obvious negative impact on their performance and the final results. The players were obviously disappointed by the final standings. Disappointment, because everyone knows that if the players of this team had the opportunity to train in an Olympic size ice rink and at reasonable hours, they would have accomplished amazing results.

Despite all these factors, the appearance of the national team was successful!

This year the National Team was composed not only by the well-known experienced athletes who kept the level of the Team high for the past years, but also by new players who helped significantly and gave new hope to the team. Both our goalies, Spyros Ploutsis and Georgios Fiotakis, gave their best, protecting the net of the National Team once again! Despite the many serious injuries, our athletes did not give up and kept fighting until the last minute, to make us proud again!

The scorers of our National Team were Panagiotis Koulouris, Dimitris Kalyvas, Nikolaos Papadopoulos, Georgios Kalyvas, Lefteris Fournogerakis, Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis, Ioannis Koufis, Orestis Tilios, Kyriakos Adamidis and Iason Pachos. Of course all the other athletes, Polykarpos Amanatidis, Nikos Chatzigiannis, Georgios Kouleles, Diogenis Souras, Pavlos Kasampoulis, Marios Libertos, Antonis Kanellis and Dimitris Malamas, also contributed in order for the National Team to have a good presence in the World Championship.

Most Valuable Player of the Championship for our National Team was Panagiotis Koulouris.

Special thanks to ETALON, who sponsored the National Team.
Special thanks to all the Greek fans that supported the National Team, by either coming to the ice rink or by sending words of encouragement. THANK YOU!

Player Statistics

#	Name	GP	Goals	Assists	Points	SOG	PIM
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	5	4	2	6	16	14
21	Dimitris Kalyvas (C)	5	0	6	6	16	2
24	Nikolaos Papadopoulos	4	0	3	3	12	14
19	Georgios Kalyvas (A)	5	2	0	2	13	0
7	Eleftherios Fournogerakis	5	1	1	2	3	2
10	Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis	5	1	1	2	11	0
13	Ioannis Koufis	5	1	0	1	15	4
11	Orestis Tilios (A)	5	1	0	1	11	2
22	Kyriakos Adamidis	5	1	0	1	11	2
8	Iason Pachos	5	0	1	1	8	10
4	Polykarpos Amanatidis	5	0	0	0	8	6
5	Nikolaos Chatzigiannis	5	0	0	0	1	8
6	Georgios Kouleles	5	0	0	0	2	0
14	Diogenis Souras	5	0	0	0	1	0
2	Pavlos Kasampoulis	5	0	0	0	1	0
16	Marios Lybertos	5	0	0	0	1	2
15	Antonis Kanellis	5	0	0	0	1	0
12	Dimitris Malamas	1	0	0	0	0	27
1	Giorgos Fiotakis	5	0	0	0		4
25	Spyros-Dalibor Ploutsis	5	0	0	0		4

#	Name	Team	P	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
11	Macky Reinecke	South Africa	F	5	4	14	18	12
8	Joshua Reinecke	South Africa	F	5	9	7	16	16
24	Uthman Sammai	South Africa	F	5	5	10	15	8
24	Gareth Roberts	Ireland	F	5	8	3	11	16
23	Sasha Backes	Luxemburg	F	5	4	4	8	0
17	Min Ri Chol	DPR Korea	F	5	5	2	7	4
18	Conor Redmond	Ireland	F	5	3	5	7	0
11	Robert Beran	Luxemburg	F	5	1	6	7	2
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	HELLAS	F	5	4	2	6	14
21	Thiery Beran	Luxemburg	F	5	3	3	6	4
18	Chris Reeves	South Africa	D	5	3	3	6	0
4	Jack Valadas	South Africa	F	5	3	3	6	0
11	Rim Hong Chun	DPR Korea	F	5	2	4	6	0
21	Dimitris Kalyvas	HELLAS	F	5	0	6	6	2

P:Position, GP: Games Played, G:Goals, A:Assists, PTS:Points, PIM:Penalty in Minutes

Click here for more statistics

Last game of the World Championship against Luxembourg and our National team tried but could not get the desired result. The final score of 3-2 clearly shows that any team could have won today, and despite many injuries from the Greek side, the team played very well. Luck was not on our side once again, and despite the many opportunities, especially in the second period, we were unable to equalize and eventually go ahead in the score.

Congratulations to all our players who tried their best and made ​​us proud once again!

The points of the National Team:

#	Name	Goals	Assists	Points
7	Lefteris Fournogerakis	1	0	1
19	Georgios Kalyvas (A)	1	0	1
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	0	1	1

Georgios Kalyvas (A) was named MVP of the game.

Panagiotis Koulouris was named MVP of the National Team for the whole tournament.

In a packed stadium, with the Greek fans cheering non-stop for the National Team, the players faced the home team and the favorite for the gold medal South Africans. Although it was a tough game the players gave their 100%. Luck was and patience was not on the Greek side, since the many penalties helped the South Africans score 5 power-play goals. Unlike previous games, the third period was the good one for the National Team, clearly showing that they can compete against any opponent.
Special thanks to all the Greeks that came to the ice rink to support our National Team.

The points of the National Team:

#	Name	Goals	Assists	Points
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	1	0	1
7	Lefteris Fournogerakis	0	1	1
21	Dimitris Kalyvas (C)	0	1	1

Spyros-Dalibor Ploutsis was named MVP of the National Team.
In the other matches of Day 4:
DPR Korea – Ireland 2 – 1
Luxembourg – United Arab Emirates 8 – 1

Third day of the World Championship and the National Team, despite starting the game very well, did not get the positive result. After two periods the score was 2-1 in favor of DPR Korea but the players of the National Team showed that they could run away with a win. The team started the 3rd period very strong with 2 great opportunities (one hit the post and the other missed an empty net), luck was not on the National Team side and instead of tying the game 2-2, it became 3-1. At this point, the players had no more powers, and the game eventually ended 7-1.

The points of the National Team:

#	Name	Goals	Assists	Points
22	Kyriakos Adamidis	1	0	1
8	Iason Pachos	0	1	1
10	Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis	0	1	1

Kyriakos Adamidis was named MVP of the National Team.

In the other matches of Day 3:
Luxembourg – Ireland 5 – 0
South Africa – United Arab Emirates 15 – 0

A great victory for the Greek National Team on the second day of the World Championship, defeating the United Arab Emirates with a final score of 4-3. The opponents started off the game really well scoring twice and surprising the Greek squad. Despite the initial shock the National Team regrouped and turned the game around scoring 4 unanswered goals ending the second period. The team was pressing throughout the whole game showing that losing was not an option. The performance of Georgios Kalyvas was remarkable considering he had been injured just a day before, scoring the equalizing goal. Panagiotis Koulouris, newcomer to the National Team scored 2 goals and helped with his great performance. Finally, Georgios Fiotakis was great between the pipes, even saving a penalty shot just five minutes before the end of the game and while the score was 4-3.

The points of the National Team:

#	Name	Goals	Assists	Points
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	2	1	3
21	Dimitris Kalyvas (C)	0	3	3
24	Nikolaos Papadopoulos	0	2	2
13	Ioannis Koufis	1	0	1
19	Georgios Kalyvas (A)	1	0	1

Nikolaos Papadopoulos was named MVP of the National Team.

Click here for more stats for the World Championship.

First day of the Championship and the result does not reflect in any way the image of the game. An unfair defeat for the National team that lost to Ireland 6-3. The game was undecided in the first 2 periods. The Greek National Team seemed to out-play Ireland, taking 41 shots and it appeared that they can walk away with the victory. But unfortunately a bad third period cost the Greeks the game.

The points of the National Team:

#	Name	Goals	Assists	Points
21	Dimitris Kalyvas (C)	0	2	2
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	1	0	1
10	Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis	1	0	1
11	Orestis Tilios (A)	1	0	1
24	Nikolaos Papadopoulos	0	1	1

Panagiotis Koulouris was named MVP of the National Team

In the other matches of Day 1:
DPR Korea – United Arab Emirates 5 – 3
Luxembourg – South Africa 2 – 5

2013 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Div.III - South Africa

15-21 April 2013 - Grandwest Ice Arena - Cape Town, South Africa

Date	Game	Result
15.04.2013	DPR Korea - United Arab Emirates	5 : 3
15.04.2013	HELLAS - Ireland	3 : 6
15.04.2013	Luxembourg - South Africa	2 : 5
16.04.2013	United Arab Emirates -HELLAS	3 : 4
16.04.2013	DPR Korea - Luxembourg	5 : 2
16.04.2013	South Africa - Ireland	7 : 4
18.04.2013	Luxembourg - Ireland	5 : 0
18.04.2013	DPR Korea - HELLAS	7 : 1
18.04.2013	South Africa - United Arab Emirates	15 : 0
19.04.2013	Ireland - DPR Korea	1 : 2
19.04.2013	United Arab Emirates - Luxembourg	1 : 8
19.04.2013	HELLAS- South Africa	1 : 8
21.04.2013	Luxembourg - HELLAS	3 : 2
21.04.2013	Ireland - United Arab Emirates	7 : 3
21.04.2013	South Africa - DPR Korea	4 : 1

*the schedule of the games are Greek time zone.

The Hellenic Ice Sports Federation, and the coaches Grigoris Apostolidis and Panagiotis Efkarpidis have chosen the 20 athletes that will represent Greece at the upcoming World Championship:
2013 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Div. III : 15-21 April 2013 Cape Town, South Africa

#	Name	Position	Club
1	Giorgos Fiotakis	Goalie	ALBATROS
2	Pavlos Kasampoulis	Forward	IPTAMENI
4	Polykarpos Amanatidis	Defence	ARIS
5	Nikolaos Chatzigiannis	Defence	IPTAMENI
6	Georgios Kouleles	Forward	IPTAMENI
7	Eleftherios Fournogerakis	Forward	MADCOWS
8	Iasonas Pachos	Forward	IPTAMENI
10	Alexandros Valsamas-Rallis	Forward	IPTAMENI
11	Orestis Tilios (A)	Defence	IPTAMENI
12	Dimitris Malamas	Forward	ARIS
13	Ioannis Koufis	Forward	IPTAMENI
14	Diogenis Souras	Defence	IPTAMENI
15	Antonis Kanellis	Forward	AVANTES
16	Marios Lybertos	Defence	IPTAMENI
17	Panagiotis Koulouris	Forward	ARIS
19	Georgios Kalyvas (A)	Forward	IPTAMENI
21	Dimitris Kalyvas (C)	Forward	IPTAMENI
22	Kyriakos Adamidis	Forward	PAOK
24	Nikolaos Papadopoulos	Defence	PAOK
25	Spyros-Dalibor Ploutsis	Goalie	IPTAMENI

Click here for more information on each player.