The Craziest Ice Hockey Place In The World

I bet you have never heard about Jesenice. That is a small town in Slovenia, located near Austrian and Italian border. It's entire population is about 15.000. Everybody loves hockey, many of us are regularly visiting league games in Jesenice. The team we are all proud of - named Acroni Jesenice - is currently competing in Austrian Ice Hockey league, since the opposition in Slovenia is too weak. To be honest, Slovenian national championship is played during the whole season, too. It's just that Jesenice and their biggest rival from capital Ljubljana are joining the competition after finishing their playing

in Austrian league.
There's a saying for Jesenice being the craziest hockey town in the world. Everybody talks about the game, everybody comments the last game, everybody enjoys in winning it. And probably everybody knows better than our currently Finnish coach what to do when the team loses.

Jesenice (and Slovenia) used to be a former part of ex-Yugoslavia. The team was competing in a Yugoslavian Hockey League and they manage to win the Championship 23 - times. They continue to do the same in Slovenian league (Slovenia declared independence in 1991). They won first three Championships in a row, before the club financially almost broke. That resulted in their biggest rival from Ljubljana to win 11 consecutive titles. Well, it's Jesenice's turn in the last few years again.
Anyway, I wanted

to say something about players born and raised in Jesenice. Of course our most famous player is Anze Kopitar. He is playing his game in NHL for Los Angeles Kings, and he really is a Star. There is a very good goal keeper from Jesenice - Robert Kristan. He defends his net for Medvescak Zagreb, also playing in Austrian Hockey League. He of course is also a number one goalie in a Slovenian national team. He used to make headlines few years ago, when The World Ice Hockey Championship was held in Canada. Slovenians lost their opening game against Canada 5 to 1, but Kristan saved 60 shots, letting just five other pucks in his net(Danny Heatley scoring hat-trick in a 4 -point game). That surely is a good goalie, agree? Jesenice exported plenty of other good players around the world in a last few years. They are all of course members of national team. To name some of them : Marcel Rodman, David Rodman, Tomaz Razingar, Ales Kranjc, Sabahudin Kovacevic, Rok Pajic and many others... There are a few really good youngsters in Acroni Jesenice too, par example Rok Ticar, Robert Sabolic, Ziga Jeglic, Anze Kuralt etc.etc. Just remember those names!!!

To learn more about hockey in Jesenice you have to click on the link.