Rinkside At The International Ice Hockey

Fireworks, fights and flames set the scene for the International Ice Hockey exhibition match between Canada and USA at a sold out Perth Arena. Daniel Cribb tries to figure out what the puck is going on.

A bit of rain and a slight drop in temperature in July and Australians flood to social media with content that would make anyone think lakes are freezing over and half the continent is being swallowed by floods. You got stuck in traffic for an hour because the roads were a little more congested? Try Canada during the first snowfall of the season. A 30-minute drive might take three hours, and along the way you could easily pass three or four serious crash scenes.

The fact is, our winter more closely resembles nice weather for a lot of other countries – parts of Canada and the USA included. The weekend the International Ice Hockey hit WA for two sold-out Canada Vs USA exhibition matches at Perth Arena, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Winter, hey?

The weather was great, but most likely why Ice Hockey isn’t a more prominent sport in the country, and perhaps why the masses flocked to the Arena which had been transformed into a world-class rink to catch the match.

Most in attendance had no idea what players made up their team of choice, and knew little about the game, with their preconceptions of the sport involving The Mighty Ducks or How I Met Your Mother’s Robin Scherbatsky. The spectacle alone was enough to sell tickets.

Australia’s always up for embracing Canadian and US culture – a pop-up ice rink in the Perth Cultural Centre this July proof of that - and thus begun an evening of American-style hotdogs, beer in plastic cups and slurred chants. Acknowledging most of the crowd had little knowledge of the rules of the game, a short instructional video aired before an inaudible announcement echoed throughout the arena. “Be prepared to protect yourself from a ware ward puck,” patrons were told. "Death" and "no liability" were also briefly mentioned. Opening entertainment came in the form of fireworks, threatening bass and some national anthems, and then it was game time.

Perth Arena was divided in half, with each side rooting for a different team. Had the ticketing system allowed punters to choose which side they would be sitting on, the Canadian side would have sold out a lot faster than that of the US.

Having had little interaction with the sport in the past, most seemed unable to muster the appropriate reaction to the actions on the ice, with inappropriately timed responses – in grunt form - that must have thrown the seasoned athletes off to some extent.

Barely minutes into the first period and a fight broke out. The venue erupted with a deafen cheer, music kicked in and two players went at it for a solid 30 seconds before falling over and being escorted off the ice. They weren’t really doing any justice for one of the events sponsors, Stop Concussions, and the goal Canada scored shortly after didn’t receive such a warm reception.