Iran National Hockey Team Wins First Ever Hockey Game

Just under two months after hitting the ice for their first ever training camp, Iran's national ice hockey team has won their first ever ice hockey match, a 5-4 win over HC Almaty.

Made up of mainly inline players from their inline program, Iran has spent the past few days training in Kazakhstan with coach Sergei Shavernev, who has served as the head coach of Kyrgyzstan at the Asian Winter Games and Challenge Cup of Asia. Back in June, the team participated in a camp in Italy, looking to secure the best players to build a solid foundation on. On Tuesday, they met up with HC Almaty, a team in the top division of hockey in Kazakhstan, taking the 5-4 victory in a close debut match for the team. Click here for video of the team celebrating.

Iran is set to participate in their very first tournament in 2017, the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. The final team list has not been confirmed for the tournament, but as many as 20 teams have been rumored to participate in the men's division.

The team currently has an Olympic-sized rink in Iran, which is required by the IIHF to participate internationally. While the team does have some of the requirements to play in official competitions, the team has yet to become an IIHF member and is seeking to do so.

To learn more about hockey in Iran, check out this interview with head coach Kaveh Sedghi, as well as Davide Tuniz's interview with inline captain Arsalan Monfared.

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