Ice Blacks captain living the dream
Callum Burns is living out his childhood dream this week.
The Ice Blacks defender is no stranger to the big time after nearly a decade with the national side, but taking over the captaincy and playing in a world tournament at home has added another level.
"It's pretty exciting," Burns said.
"A really big honour ... to play in front of the home crowd as well.
"It's been a childhood dream of mine, so I'm really, really excited."
The Ice Blacks opened their division 2, group B world championship campaign with a 3-1 win over Chinese Taipei on Sunday and were back on the ice against Georgia last night.
They play Thailand (Thursday), Bulgaria (Friday) and Iceland (Saturday) — the latter two games have already sold out — across the week.
Every team presented a different challenge, but Burns said the Ice Blacks needed to focus on themselves first.
"I think just maintaining consistency. You've got to keep a level head. These tournaments, anything can happen — top teams can lose to lower teams as far as seeding goes.
"You can't get too far ahead of yourself and you've just got to take it game by game."
Drawing on the support from Dunedin home crowds, who came out in force for the women's tournament a fortnight ago, and using the home ice to their advantage was key.
"They [the Ice Fernz] got a lot of support and it looks like we're going to get the same.
"It's nice to be here. We're not having to adjust to going to the other side of the world.
"It's been nice to get right into it and we've had a good training camp ... we're in good stead."
Burns, who hails from Queenstown, started playing ice hockey when he was 6, after visiting a friend's house and trying out his hockey gear.
The sport has been a mainstay in his life ever since and he has been part of a successful reign with the Southern Stampede, who won their record ninth Birgel Cup in the national league last year.
Burns put their success down to the culture, starting in the locker room and off the ice as mates, and bringing that to their games.
"The whole organisation — management, coaches, physios — everyone that's involved contributes their bit.
"Not one person can do everything ... just trying to bring that same kind of team environment to this team [the Ice Blacks] as well."
It was those friendships that had kept him in the sport for so long.
"I've got all my best mates growing up that are on this team as well.
"I love winning, as does everyone, and to do that with your best mates — not much better."
— Yesterday's results: Iceland beat Bulgaria 8-4; Chinese Taipei beat Thailand 7-3 and Georgia beat New Zealand 5-0.
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