Romania





Romania is a country in southeastern Europe.

Its population is about 21,000,000.

Ice hockey
The Romanian men's national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey of Romania, and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are currently ranked 28th in the 2010 IIHF World Rankings and currently compete in IIHF World Championship Division I. They have competed in four Olympic ice hockey competitions.

Olympic competition Romania started Olympic hockey in 1964 in the B division. In the tournament, the team finished 12th out of 16 teams and managed 3 wins against Austria, Italy, and Hungary also with a tie against Yugoslavia. In 1968, Romania lost its qualification match against West Germany 7-0 and was forced to compete in the B division again. In the first two games, Romania beat Austria 3-2 and the Host, France 7-3. They lost their next three games and finished 12th out of 14 in the standings. After skipping the 1972 competition, Romania returned for the 1976 tournament. This time Romania played Poland in the Qualification round and lost 7-4, keeping them in the B division once again. However, Romania battled back and won 4 of 5 games with only one loss against Yugoslavia, still winning the division. The team finished 7th out of 12. In 1980, Romania was able to play with the top teams and was put into the Blue Division group, along with tough opponents such as Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and USA. In the first game Romania was down 4-2 to West Germany, but managed to scored 4 goals to beat the former bronze medallists 6-4. In their next game Romania got shut out by Sweden 8-0. The Swedes scored 3 goals in the first period which left Romania out of it. After a lopsided loss to Czechoslovakia (7-2) the team then took on USA. The US jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and added two more to it to lead 4-1 after two periods. Unlike other teams that the US had faced, the Romanians fought strong in the third period, despite being outshot 15-3, and scored a goal. The final score was 7-2. Romania played Norway for their final game, who had lost all four of their past games and had no chance to advance to the Medal Round. Romania fell behind less than a minute into the game, but stormed back to take the lead 3-1 in the third period. The Norwegian team battled back though, and scored once with a minute and a half left to play, and scored once more to tie it with only 29 seconds left. This tie still gave Romania one point but they had been hoping for a win. They finished the tournament with a 1-3-1 record, and were ranked 8th out of 12, just beating Holland, West Germany, Norway, and Japan. This was the last time that the Romanians competed in the Olympic tournaments.

The Romanians were the winners of the World Championship Division II (Group A) in the 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships and were promoted to Division I.[1]

The history of ice hockey in Romania began in 1921 when the first game took place. Hockey proved popular and, in 1924, the Romanian Ice Hockey Federation was founded joining subsequently the International Ice Hockey Federation.

National Teams

 * Romania men's national ice hockey team
 * Romania men's national junior ice hockey team
 * Romania men's national U-18 ice hockey team
 * Romania women's national ice hockey team

Leagues
Liga Naţională de Hochei

Borsodi Liga

MOL Liga