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, in which the Slovenian team Dolenjske Toplice will also participate, and a Bulgarian club has also been invited. The tournament starts on Friday at 9 p.m.

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 nine 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 Skopje Herd, previously played for HK Metalurg, was the captain of our national team and has international experience for Greek team Iraklis.

It is interesting that for the HK Skopje Herd team, 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 (Nick DiLisi) is from the USA. Behind this project stands Canadian native Cody Janzen, who has long-term plans with the newly formed club, says Taskov.

The foundation of the Skopje Herd is made up 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 to be held next weekend in Skopje, and a week after that, Skopje HRD has been invited to a tournament in Sarajevo, in which clubs from the region will participate.

As Taskov told us, the long-term plans related to Skopje Herd 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.

Source: Sloboden Pechat