The newly formed club HK Skopje Herd, consisting of domestic players, reinforced by four Canadians and one Slovak, is scheduled to compete in a tournament at the Boris Trajkovski rink, which will also feature the Slovenian team HK Dolenjske Toplice, and a Bulgarian club has also been invited, but is not a certain participant. The tournament starts on Friday at 9 p.m.
An international hockey tournament is to be held in Skopje on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, at the Boris Trajkovski ice rink. The newly formed domestic hockey club Skopje Herd, which is the organizer, will participate, and the second sure participant is the Slovenian club Dolenjske Toplice. Confirmation is also expected from a Bulgarian club, but the tournament will take place even with its possible absence.
On Friday, the match between the host and the Slovenians starts at 9 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday, the matches are in the morning at 9 a.m. After a long lethargy in hockey in Macedonia, these activities are expected to give a new impetus to this sport.
We received the information from Macedonian hockey player Ivica Taskov, who is a player for HC Skopje Herd, previously played for Metalurg, was the captain of our national team and has international experience for the Greek team HC Iraklis Salonica.
It is interesting that in HK Skopje Herd, in addition to the base of the “roster” consisting of ten domestic hockey players, four reinforcements from Canada, as well as one Slovak, will also play. The coach is also Canadian. Behind this project is Canadian Cody Janzen, who has long-term plans with the newly formed club, says Taskov.
– The Skopje herd’s lineup consists of domestic players, but we also have foreign reinforcements, four Canadians and one Slovak. We have already had joint training sessions and it is obvious that the foreign reinforcements are of exceptional quality. The goalkeeper is particularly impressive among the Canadians. But the rest, as well as the Slovak, are of high quality, which, frankly, I did not expect. We should see an interesting tournament this weekend – says Taskov.
In fact, according to Taskov, this is just the beginning of Janzen’s plans. A similar tournament is scheduled to be held next weekend in Skopje, and a week after that, Skopje HRD has been invited to a tournament in Sarajevo, which will feature clubs from the region.
As Taskov told us, the long-term plans related to Skopje HRD are for the club to compete in a league system next season. This would be realized through participation in one of the neighboring leagues. Contacts have already been made with some of the neighboring leagues and the signals from there are positive. Time will tell how and to what extent the plans will be realized.
