AL-KADIN THWARTS THREEPEAT AS LIBNAN WINS CUP ON HOME ICE
No Cup for Chukotka this year.
In spite of their valiant efforts to tie the game late and send it to overtime, it took two minutes for a costly defensive error to spring Moussa al-Kadin and Youssouf Darwiche on a two-on-one, and with both defenceman Yevgeny Koryakov and goalie Maxim Mogilny overcommitted to Darwiche, a quick pull-back between-the-legs pass to al-Kadin left him wide open to bury the shot and win the tournament in front of a packed crowd in Beirut.
Besides the assist on the game-winner, Darwiche himself had two goals in the 4-3 overtime win, with the other goal coming from second-liner Ismail Zuayter. Sergey Kosygin was in on all three goals in the game for Chukotka, scoring one himself while assisting on goals by Dmitry Dolgonosov and Ruslan Smirnov.
"It's disappointing, but the better team won today," Kosygin said post-match. "We can only come back next season and learn from the mistakes we made."
So this brings an end to the 2022 Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific and also the Challenge Cup season on the whole! Let's take a look at our final stats winners:
Stats leaders:
Pts: Markus Tran (VIE) - 30
G: Tran - 20
A: Youssouf Darwiche (LIB) - 12
+/-: Darwiche - +14
PIM: Eight players - 20
Defence PTS: Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK) - 9
Defence G: Koryakov - 3
Defence A: Koryakov and Ruslan Smirnov (also CHK) - 6
Defence +/-: Ruslan Smirnov and Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK), and Aboud al-Ghazzawi (LIB) - +10
GAA (for goalie in 45% or more played): Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR) - 0.88
Save %: al-Qadir - .972
Awards:
MVP: Youssouf Darwiche (LIB)
(Top stats seen above)
Best goalie: Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR)
Best defenceman: Aboud al-Ghazzawi (LIB)
Most sportsmanlike player: Dashdemir Aydynool (TYV)
All-Stars
GK Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir
DF Aboud al-Ghazzawi
DF Yevgeny Koryakov
RW Sergey Kosygin
LW Youssouf Darwiche
C Markus Tran
Tentative Challenge Cups for Next Season (2023)
DIVISIONS I
Challenge Cup of Africa, Division I - Ogbomosho, Yorubaland
Group A - Gabon, Mauritius, Adamawa (app.), Tigray (app.), Seychelles (app.), Nilotica (app.)
Group B - Namibia, Yorubaland, Mbundu (app.), Hausa Nation (app.), Somalia (app.), Comoros (app.)
Challenge Cup of the Americas, Division I - Asunción, Paraguay
Group A - Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Dutch Antilles, Bolivia, Bahamas (app.)
Group B - Paraguay, Panama, Costa Rica, Mayan Republic, Venezuela, Uruguay (app.)
Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific, Division I - Kuwait City, Kuwait
Group A - Kuwait, Pashmenish, Sri Lanka, Papua
Group B - Bahrain, Bharat, Saudi Kingdom, Micronesia
Group C - Hawaii, Melanesia, Hijaz, Bangladesh
Group D - Dravidia, Kashmir, Tibet, Sana'a
Challenge Cup of Europe, Division I - Nicosia, Cyprus
Abkhazia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Malta, North Macedonia
CUPS PROPER
Challenge Cup of Africa - Libreville, Fangland
Group A - Botswana, Réunion, Egypt, Igbolandia, East African Union
Group B - Fangland, Calvinia, Lesotho, Akan Empire, Ethiopia
Challenge Cup of the Americas - Constanza, Hispaniola
Group A - Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Canadian Antarctic Territories
Group B - Hispaniola, Inca Republic, Puerto Rico, Antillean Union
Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific - Shahrekord, Persia
Group A - Libnan, Vietnam, Punjab, Polynesia, Uyghurstan, Oman, Kurdistan
Group B - Chukotka, Jordan, Tyva, Persia, Nepal, Qatar, Tajikistan
Challenge Cup of Europe - Tiranë, Albania
Asturias, Crimea, Albania, Galicia, Alania, Faeroe Islands
Note for Asia:
Reverting to a three-division setup with ten teams per division in 2024; there is *still* going to be promotion from Division I to the Cup proper!
Cup Proper 2024 - top 8 teams stay in Cup Proper plus two promoted from Division I
Division I 2024 - bottom six teams from Cup Proper plus 3rd through 6th place in Division I 2023.
Division II 2024 - all other teams from Division I 2023.
IIHF DIRECTORATE BEST PLAYERS FOR CHALLENGE CUP OF ASIA
About an hour ago from the IIHF Headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, the Directorate released its "best list" of who they felt were the best players individually for each of the twelve teams in the Challenge Cup of Asia. Nikita Alexeyev with his opinions:
Chukotka - RW Sergey Kosygin
No-brainer. This guy is a KHLer, for crying out loud! I'm actually a bit shocked he only placed third in scoring in the tournament - he was behind Markus Tran and Youssouf Darwiche and as many goals as the latter. Runner-up IMO was Yevgeny Koryakov, who got shafted out of Best Defenceman because of one dumb mistake that cost Chukotka the Cup.
Jordan - G Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir
And every hockey fan with a brain screams, "WELL DUH!!!" This guy has carried Jordan since his IIHF tournament debut. I wanna see this guy in the main ladder already! He is so good, and rightly took Best Goalie and finished second to Darwiche in MVP voting. That's right. He beat Kosygin.
Kuwait - LW Rashid Abdurrahim
Let's face facts - Kuwait was so pathetic I doubt even Gordon Ramsay could come up with enough superlative insults to describe their campaign, and it's a good thing their coach resigned because if he hadn't he'd've had to bear additional humiliation in being sacked. "Shad and Sheed," as I've called them in the past, Rashid plus unrelated Rashad Muhammad Abdurrahim, who was their starting centre, were literally the only viable choices here. Their defence sucked. Their second, third, and fourth lines sucked. Their goalies sucked. The only people with anything positive were the three front-liners, and Suleiman Hajji Farrakhan was well behind the other two. Here's how far behind. Out of the nine goals Kuwait scored in this tournament, all but one was off the stick of Shad and Sheed. That's right. Farrakhan had one goal and three assists in the entire tournament. Slight edge to Rashid Abdurrahim because he had five goals to Rashad's three. So the right choice. But here's a final note to Kuwait - WAKEY WAKEY!!
Libnan - LW Youssouf Darwiche
This is closer than the points would let on simply because al-Ghazzawi - my pick for runner-up - were so close in how much they put into the win. Moustapha is an average goalie but the defence in front of him is beastly. Lemme put it this way - if al-Qadir had Libnan's defence in front of him he wouldn't even have allowed the seven goals he did! But Darwiche is not just an offensive beast at this level, he is also an excellent defensive forward and he has much more energy than the average player - if there were a Best Defensive Forward award for these tournaments like there is going to be for the main ladder, he'd win it. I agree with him being MVP, so guess what that says about him being Libnan's best player? DUHHHHH!!
Nepal - C Prasad Shrestha
Another no-brainer, but not the most-liked or even likable guy on the Nepal team. Quite frankly, he's an arrogant bozo. "If I could, I'd play for England..." HELLO??? You aren't that good, Prazz! If you're so good, why aren't any BEIHL teams signing you? He doesn't suck, but he's not great either, and most of the rest of his team, relative to this level, is pretty mediocre. Which makes it all the more embarrassing for Kuwait that they lost to them!
Persia - W Daniel Garoussi
He spent most of his time on the right wing, but fun fact about Dan the Man - he's ambidextrous and has left-handed and right-handed sticks available to him. He's actually decent. I could see him even being UIHL-1 calibre if he played on the lower lines. There are other good Persian players, but the Directorate made the right call here. Navid Mirzadeh, his centre, is second-best. They have an okay goalie as well, in Jahan Khoroushi. He played junior hockey in Nordland.
Polynesia - G Mataeula 'Ahonima
The first with which I disagree. It should have been either Sasi Tepoea or Georges Tetuanui. Don't get me wrong, Big Matty had his moments of brilliance, but he wasn't that good. Not even among the top five goalies in AsPac - in my view those were Al-Qadir, Mogilny, Mehta from Punjab, Arakchaa from Tyva, and Thanh from Vietnam. In that order. But I have to say, those Polynesians know how to produce two-way forwards that hit with oomph, so if they can bring their game up to a higher level you could see more players of theirs being wanted abroad.
Punjab - RW Jason Bawa
Admittedly, this was very close. Yes, Bawa was a beast, but so were Grewal and Patel up front and Patel on the blueline. I'm not going to fault the Directorate for picking any one of those guys, since they all really pulled their weight. It just wasn't their year for a medal. I can just imagine how good they would have been had Devin Singh not blown a tire on opening game day, because everyone says he is their best player!
Qatar - LW Alaa ar-Rashid
Qatar only missed relegation because of reorganization and because they sucked less than Kuwait. But they were not that good. Even their best player was not that good. They had a better goalie, yes, but they scored more goals in their game against Kuwait than they did in the entire group stage! Of their nine goals total (of which five were scored in said match), ar-Rashid was in on seven them. Four goals and three assists - two of each of which were against Kuwait.
Tyva - RW Dashdemir Aydynool
Yeah, easy pick. He had more than two points per game with a total of twelve goals and six assists, and he did it all with the kind of charm one would expect from a Most Sportsmanlike player. He didn't take a single penalty. He drew a few though, but without diving! I love this guy; I wish he'd play in Uralica... oh wait, that's right, HE DOES!!! He's with Juganvar in the UIHL-2.
Uyghurstan - C Ablat Kashgari
Normally given to passing rather than shooting, Kashgari proved he had good finish as well as good passing this season when he had to compensate for Yusup Erkinoghul being injured. This was too easy, given that much of the rest of the team was average. Qurban Bariyev was pretty good too.
Vietnam - C Markus Tran
OH COME ON!! This was one of the easiest in the group! He lead the tournament in goals and points! What do you think I was gonna say, that he wasn't as good as <insert player name here>? There are maybe two players in the entire tournament I could say that about - Darwiche because of his two-way play and al-Qadir because he was amazing in goal. The best purely offensive player in the tournament, better than even Kosygin. It's too bad he wasn't a better defensive forward.
No Cup for Chukotka this year.
In spite of their valiant efforts to tie the game late and send it to overtime, it took two minutes for a costly defensive error to spring Moussa al-Kadin and Youssouf Darwiche on a two-on-one, and with both defenceman Yevgeny Koryakov and goalie Maxim Mogilny overcommitted to Darwiche, a quick pull-back between-the-legs pass to al-Kadin left him wide open to bury the shot and win the tournament in front of a packed crowd in Beirut.
Besides the assist on the game-winner, Darwiche himself had two goals in the 4-3 overtime win, with the other goal coming from second-liner Ismail Zuayter. Sergey Kosygin was in on all three goals in the game for Chukotka, scoring one himself while assisting on goals by Dmitry Dolgonosov and Ruslan Smirnov.
"It's disappointing, but the better team won today," Kosygin said post-match. "We can only come back next season and learn from the mistakes we made."
So this brings an end to the 2022 Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific and also the Challenge Cup season on the whole! Let's take a look at our final stats winners:
Stats leaders:
Pts: Markus Tran (VIE) - 30
G: Tran - 20
A: Youssouf Darwiche (LIB) - 12
+/-: Darwiche - +14
PIM: Eight players - 20
Defence PTS: Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK) - 9
Defence G: Koryakov - 3
Defence A: Koryakov and Ruslan Smirnov (also CHK) - 6
Defence +/-: Ruslan Smirnov and Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK), and Aboud al-Ghazzawi (LIB) - +10
GAA (for goalie in 45% or more played): Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR) - 0.88
Save %: al-Qadir - .972
Awards:
MVP: Youssouf Darwiche (LIB)
(Top stats seen above)
Best goalie: Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR)
Best defenceman: Aboud al-Ghazzawi (LIB)
Most sportsmanlike player: Dashdemir Aydynool (TYV)
All-Stars
GK Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir
DF Aboud al-Ghazzawi
DF Yevgeny Koryakov
RW Sergey Kosygin
LW Youssouf Darwiche
C Markus Tran
Tentative Challenge Cups for Next Season (2023)
DIVISIONS I
Challenge Cup of Africa, Division I - Ogbomosho, Yorubaland
Group A - Gabon, Mauritius, Adamawa (app.), Tigray (app.), Seychelles (app.), Nilotica (app.)
Group B - Namibia, Yorubaland, Mbundu (app.), Hausa Nation (app.), Somalia (app.), Comoros (app.)
Challenge Cup of the Americas, Division I - Asunción, Paraguay
Group A - Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Dutch Antilles, Bolivia, Bahamas (app.)
Group B - Paraguay, Panama, Costa Rica, Mayan Republic, Venezuela, Uruguay (app.)
Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific, Division I - Kuwait City, Kuwait
Group A - Kuwait, Pashmenish, Sri Lanka, Papua
Group B - Bahrain, Bharat, Saudi Kingdom, Micronesia
Group C - Hawaii, Melanesia, Hijaz, Bangladesh
Group D - Dravidia, Kashmir, Tibet, Sana'a
Challenge Cup of Europe, Division I - Nicosia, Cyprus
Abkhazia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Malta, North Macedonia
CUPS PROPER
Challenge Cup of Africa - Libreville, Fangland
Group A - Botswana, Réunion, Egypt, Igbolandia, East African Union
Group B - Fangland, Calvinia, Lesotho, Akan Empire, Ethiopia
Challenge Cup of the Americas - Constanza, Hispaniola
Group A - Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Canadian Antarctic Territories
Group B - Hispaniola, Inca Republic, Puerto Rico, Antillean Union
Challenge Cup of Asia-Pacific - Shahrekord, Persia
Group A - Libnan, Vietnam, Punjab, Polynesia, Uyghurstan, Oman, Kurdistan
Group B - Chukotka, Jordan, Tyva, Persia, Nepal, Qatar, Tajikistan
Challenge Cup of Europe - Tiranë, Albania
Asturias, Crimea, Albania, Galicia, Alania, Faeroe Islands
Note for Asia:
Reverting to a three-division setup with ten teams per division in 2024; there is *still* going to be promotion from Division I to the Cup proper!
Cup Proper 2024 - top 8 teams stay in Cup Proper plus two promoted from Division I
Division I 2024 - bottom six teams from Cup Proper plus 3rd through 6th place in Division I 2023.
Division II 2024 - all other teams from Division I 2023.
IIHF DIRECTORATE BEST PLAYERS FOR CHALLENGE CUP OF ASIA
About an hour ago from the IIHF Headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, the Directorate released its "best list" of who they felt were the best players individually for each of the twelve teams in the Challenge Cup of Asia. Nikita Alexeyev with his opinions:
Chukotka - RW Sergey Kosygin
No-brainer. This guy is a KHLer, for crying out loud! I'm actually a bit shocked he only placed third in scoring in the tournament - he was behind Markus Tran and Youssouf Darwiche and as many goals as the latter. Runner-up IMO was Yevgeny Koryakov, who got shafted out of Best Defenceman because of one dumb mistake that cost Chukotka the Cup.
Jordan - G Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir
And every hockey fan with a brain screams, "WELL DUH!!!" This guy has carried Jordan since his IIHF tournament debut. I wanna see this guy in the main ladder already! He is so good, and rightly took Best Goalie and finished second to Darwiche in MVP voting. That's right. He beat Kosygin.
Kuwait - LW Rashid Abdurrahim
Let's face facts - Kuwait was so pathetic I doubt even Gordon Ramsay could come up with enough superlative insults to describe their campaign, and it's a good thing their coach resigned because if he hadn't he'd've had to bear additional humiliation in being sacked. "Shad and Sheed," as I've called them in the past, Rashid plus unrelated Rashad Muhammad Abdurrahim, who was their starting centre, were literally the only viable choices here. Their defence sucked. Their second, third, and fourth lines sucked. Their goalies sucked. The only people with anything positive were the three front-liners, and Suleiman Hajji Farrakhan was well behind the other two. Here's how far behind. Out of the nine goals Kuwait scored in this tournament, all but one was off the stick of Shad and Sheed. That's right. Farrakhan had one goal and three assists in the entire tournament. Slight edge to Rashid Abdurrahim because he had five goals to Rashad's three. So the right choice. But here's a final note to Kuwait - WAKEY WAKEY!!
Libnan - LW Youssouf Darwiche
This is closer than the points would let on simply because al-Ghazzawi - my pick for runner-up - were so close in how much they put into the win. Moustapha is an average goalie but the defence in front of him is beastly. Lemme put it this way - if al-Qadir had Libnan's defence in front of him he wouldn't even have allowed the seven goals he did! But Darwiche is not just an offensive beast at this level, he is also an excellent defensive forward and he has much more energy than the average player - if there were a Best Defensive Forward award for these tournaments like there is going to be for the main ladder, he'd win it. I agree with him being MVP, so guess what that says about him being Libnan's best player? DUHHHHH!!
Nepal - C Prasad Shrestha
Another no-brainer, but not the most-liked or even likable guy on the Nepal team. Quite frankly, he's an arrogant bozo. "If I could, I'd play for England..." HELLO??? You aren't that good, Prazz! If you're so good, why aren't any BEIHL teams signing you? He doesn't suck, but he's not great either, and most of the rest of his team, relative to this level, is pretty mediocre. Which makes it all the more embarrassing for Kuwait that they lost to them!
Persia - W Daniel Garoussi
He spent most of his time on the right wing, but fun fact about Dan the Man - he's ambidextrous and has left-handed and right-handed sticks available to him. He's actually decent. I could see him even being UIHL-1 calibre if he played on the lower lines. There are other good Persian players, but the Directorate made the right call here. Navid Mirzadeh, his centre, is second-best. They have an okay goalie as well, in Jahan Khoroushi. He played junior hockey in Nordland.
Polynesia - G Mataeula 'Ahonima
The first with which I disagree. It should have been either Sasi Tepoea or Georges Tetuanui. Don't get me wrong, Big Matty had his moments of brilliance, but he wasn't that good. Not even among the top five goalies in AsPac - in my view those were Al-Qadir, Mogilny, Mehta from Punjab, Arakchaa from Tyva, and Thanh from Vietnam. In that order. But I have to say, those Polynesians know how to produce two-way forwards that hit with oomph, so if they can bring their game up to a higher level you could see more players of theirs being wanted abroad.
Punjab - RW Jason Bawa
Admittedly, this was very close. Yes, Bawa was a beast, but so were Grewal and Patel up front and Patel on the blueline. I'm not going to fault the Directorate for picking any one of those guys, since they all really pulled their weight. It just wasn't their year for a medal. I can just imagine how good they would have been had Devin Singh not blown a tire on opening game day, because everyone says he is their best player!
Qatar - LW Alaa ar-Rashid
Qatar only missed relegation because of reorganization and because they sucked less than Kuwait. But they were not that good. Even their best player was not that good. They had a better goalie, yes, but they scored more goals in their game against Kuwait than they did in the entire group stage! Of their nine goals total (of which five were scored in said match), ar-Rashid was in on seven them. Four goals and three assists - two of each of which were against Kuwait.
Tyva - RW Dashdemir Aydynool
Yeah, easy pick. He had more than two points per game with a total of twelve goals and six assists, and he did it all with the kind of charm one would expect from a Most Sportsmanlike player. He didn't take a single penalty. He drew a few though, but without diving! I love this guy; I wish he'd play in Uralica... oh wait, that's right, HE DOES!!! He's with Juganvar in the UIHL-2.
Uyghurstan - C Ablat Kashgari
Normally given to passing rather than shooting, Kashgari proved he had good finish as well as good passing this season when he had to compensate for Yusup Erkinoghul being injured. This was too easy, given that much of the rest of the team was average. Qurban Bariyev was pretty good too.
Vietnam - C Markus Tran
OH COME ON!! This was one of the easiest in the group! He lead the tournament in goals and points! What do you think I was gonna say, that he wasn't as good as <insert player name here>? There are maybe two players in the entire tournament I could say that about - Darwiche because of his two-way play and al-Qadir because he was amazing in goal. The best purely offensive player in the tournament, better than even Kosygin. It's too bad he wasn't a better defensive forward.
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(06-11-2022, 10:13 PM)Kyng Wrote: I love how [Abacab] has a track with a section named "Lurker", when the album title itself looks like Lurker's attempt to spell "Abacus" or something .
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