Chinese Taipei wins 2013 Challenge Cup of Asia

25 Mar 2013 | Henrik Lundqvist

Challenge Cup of Asia, a Cup mainly for the Asian nations outside the IIHF World Championship program, was played in Bangkok, Thailand the past week. In yesterday's final Chinese Taipei beat Hong Kong to win the cup for the third time.

In front of 545 spectators Chinese Taipei beat Hong Kong 4-2 in the final of the 2013 Challenge Cup of Asia. Chinese Taipei also won the cup in 2008 and 2010. They have never competed in the men's World Championship program but have frequently played in the World U20 and U18 championships the past few years.

Hung-Ju Lin, Chang-Hsing Yang, Yen-Chin Shen and Kai-Hsiang Chang scored the goals in the final whil Pang-Keng Ting in the net made 26 saves.

In the bronze medal game Mongolia easily beat Kuwait 11-0.

In the semi finals Chinese Taipei had an easy game beating Kuwait 21-0! The tournament setup wasn't the best as Kuwait got a lot easier quarter final than the much better 2012 champion United Arab Emirates and the home team Thailand who both were eliminated in the quarter finals. In the other semi final Hong Kong beat Mongolia 4-3.

Top scorer of the cup was Hong Kong's Jasper Tang who scored 9 goals and 10 assists in 7 games. To Weng of Chinese Taipei and Mishigsuren Namjil of Mongolia followed with 17 points.

Two of the individual awards went to players trained in Sweden. Ban Kin Loke of Malaysia was named best forward and Likit Neimwan-Andersson best defenseman. Khaled Al Suwaidi of United Arab Emirates was named best goalkeeper.

Final ranking
1. Chinese Taipei
2. Hong Kong
3. Mongolia
4. Kuwait
5-8 Thailand
5-8 United Arab Emirates
5-8 Malaysia
5-8 Macau
9. Singapore
10. India