Bronze medal ‘bittersweet'
SkyCity Stampede's Colin McIntosh was named player of the tourney for the NZ Ice Blacks following last week's world champs in Dunedin. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
While Ice Blacks head coach Queenstowner Cam Frear is stoked his charges secured the bronze medal at last week's IIHF Division 2 Group B champs in Dunedin, he admits it's "a bit bittersweet".
"I think all of us went there with the goal of gaining promotion and getting gold, but Georgia and Iceland were both very good teams and they definitely deserved to come away with gold and silver, respectively.
"[But] any time you go to worlds and you're able to get a medal, you've got to be pretty happy."
The Ice Blacks boasted nine SkyCity Stampede players, including forward Colin McIntosh who was named Ice Blacks' player of the tourney.
Across the five games, he scored three goals and assisted in five — overall, he was 12th-equal in goal-scoring leaders, ninth-equal in assists and second in face-off leaders — Stampede's Dylan Devlin was 14th.
Frear: "He [McIntosh] was so good for us, in every single game he stepped up and kind of led us, offensively.
"He deserved New Zealand player of the tournament."
Other Stampede standouts included Lachlan Frear (one goal, one assist), Stefan Amston (one goal, assisted by Jordan Challis), and debutant Axel Ruski-Jones (one assist).
As to the atmosphere in Dunedin, Frear says it was "awesome".
"Over 1000 people [came for] the last two games that we had, and having big crowds for all of the games isn't something that's normal any other time you go to world champs, anywhere else in the world.
"For it to be family and friends and workmates ... was pretty special for the coaches and the players as well."
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