Three Queenstown 17-year-olds are getting their first fill of international ice hockey in Cape Town, South Africa, this week.
Wakatipu High students Lachy Boniface, who’s head boy, and Joel Gerard and Dunedin-based Max Simpson, who’s at John McGlashan College, are in the New Zealand under-18 team contesting the division 3 group B world champs.
Defenceman Lachy and Joel, a goaltender, have played three seasons for both the local-based U15 and U18 Stampede sides.
Lachy, who’s also captained both teams, also played twice last year for the senior championship-winning Stampede side.
Max, a winger who first played ice hockey when at Queenstown’s Remarkables Primary, has played for both Dunedin Thunder’s U15 and U18 sides, and last year had five games for the senior Thunder side.
Lachy, whose sister Lucy, 15, played for the NZ U18 women’s side in the equivalent world champs in Sofia, Bulgaria, in January, says he’s always dreamed of representing NZ.
‘‘I’m lucky enough to still have another year in U18s, ’cos of my age.’’
He’d ultimately like to play for the Ice Blacks, though making the U20s would be his next target.
What he likes about the sport is ‘‘the speed, the intensity, the physicality, you just armour up and then away you go’’.
Joel’s ambitions are similar — ‘‘[NZ] U20s next year, maybe the year after is more likely, and then obviously the Ice Blacks’’.
He and Lachy say lack of ice time over the past two months hasn’t helped, though they had on-ice training in Auckland over the past two weekends before flying off to South Africa.
Joel: ‘‘You can obviously feel the rust a little bit but it felt way better as I went on.’’
The team play the host country, Hong Kong and Thailand, after a few warm-up games.
‘‘I feel like we’ve got a very strong team,’’ Lachy says, ‘‘we’ve a lot who’ve come from overseas via [NZ] citizenship.’’
Readying for Stampede
The 2023 New Zealand Ice Hockey League schedule’s been released.
The champion SkyCity Stampede — going for its eighth title — has its season-opening double-header on May 19 and 20 against
Phoenix Thunder, in Dunedin.
The team will play the first home games, at Queenstown Ice Arena, against Auckland Mako — a team comprising league veterans and future superstars of the sport, which won’t be eligible for playoffs — the following weekend, May 26 and 27.
