Played off the puck by dominant Thais

Singapore's Ryan Tan and Thailand's Masato Kitayama tussling for the puck in the SEA Games ice hockey final. Thailand had 55 shots on goal in the 8-0 win.
Singapore's Ryan Tan and Thailand's Masato Kitayama tussling for the puck in the SEA Games ice hockey final. Thailand had 55 shots on goal in the 8-0 win. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

Against a Thai ice hockey team, whose standard is "on another level", Singapore's game plan for yesterday's SEA Games final was always about damage limitation.

Though it ended 8-0 in Thailand's favour at the SM Mall of Asia, Singapore captain Chew Wee feels his team met expectations, having upset defending champions, the Philippines, in the semi-finals.

"We followed our game plan and did our best not to let the Thais pull away too much," he said.

"We've worked 11/2 years for this and we're happy with the silver because we were aiming for a medal."

In 2017, when winter sports made its debut at the biennial Games, Singapore returned from Kuala Lumpur without a medal.

The 40-year-old Chew said: "This medal is very important because ice hockey has been played in Singapore for 20-odd years and this is the first time we've won a SEA Games medal.

"Hopefully this will (attract) more young kids to join the sport and raise the level of ice hockey."

Thailand, the 2017 runners-up, scored three in the first period, two in the second and three in the third.

Singapore goalkeeper Kenny Liang faced 55 shots while his team had just six. He said of his saves: "In terms of energy levels, I was able to keep up with the game.

"But their skill level is a little bit different from our team's so we couldn't actually attack much."

Recalling the preliminary-round match between the teams, he said: "We lost 12-2, so we were just trying to keep it low."

Singapore coach Robert Martini hailed the historic medal as a "great" achievement.

The Canadian, who became coach in 2016, said: "I was with the team in Kuala Lumpur two years ago and we finished fourth. That left a really sour taste in our mouths.

"The players have done an outstanding job committing themselves in the last two years. They train really late at night and fund their own training.

"We'll go back and keep working hard and, hopefully, bring back the gold next time."

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 09, 2019, with the headline Played off the puck by dominant Thais. Subscribe