By Alina Marner Geography Second Year
On the 5th – 6th April 2025 weekend, the Bristol Bloodhounds went undefeated in eight games to win the British Universities Ice Hockey Association Tier 3 Non-Checking National Tournament.
The 2011-12 season saw the last Bristol team until now – the Bristol Lions – who ceased to exist with the closure of the Bristol Ice Rink in 2012. This team struggled to continue without Student Union funding or support, yet still recorded an impressive 52 registered players across two teams for the final season, according to BUIHA archives.
Over the last year, the Bloodhounds have faced similar struggles – with the Student Union rejecting funding and grant applications, and a lack of ice time at Planet Ice Bristol. This meant that heading into Nationals, the 9-player roster (the smallest of the tournament) had never all been on the ice together at the same time. In fact, several players had never met the rest of the team until that weekend.
Saturday morning saw a 9:03 am faceoff against Nottingham Mavericks F. After being led to Changing Room 5 by kind-hearted members of the Manchester Metros and the Glasgow Stags C (foreshadowing) (cheers Luke Raven), the Bloodhounds changed into their kit, unsure of what to expect for the upcoming four games.
#87 Abbott of the Mavericks quickly opened the scoring with a strong shot against Bloodhounds goalie Viikberg the Viking, laced up for his first ever game. However, this was soon followed by two strong goals by alternate captain #97 Kirill “the Thrill” Korchinov and #12 Chris Neville to put Bristol back in the lead. #57 Josh Foley scored another to close the game with a 3-1 win to Bristol.
Shortly after, the Bloodhounds faced off against UEA Avalanche B. This game saw the first point of the tournament from one of Bristol’s development players, #6 Lance Shi, credited with a secondary assist on Foley’s first goal. Korchinov scored another for Bristol to win 2-0, with Viikberg facing just one shot this game.
After a few hours to rest, Bristol faced off against Newcastle Wildcats B, a team with some of the best jerseys in the tournament and an intimidating reputation. Luckily, Korchinov opened the scoring just seven seconds into the game, shortly followed by Newcastle receiving a 2-minute slashing penalty. Alas, Bristol must patch their power-play units for next year, as #69 Bird scored a short-handed goal for the Wildcats, tying the game. Korchinov responded with the game-winning goal for a 2-1 win. This was perhaps Bristol’s toughest game of the weekend, with a strong amount of offensive pressure from the Wildcats firing up the star Bloodhounds to rip some hard shots.
The first day of the tournament ended with a more relaxed game against Sheffield Bears G: a 1-0 win for Bristol focused on providing the development players with more puck control time and some good shot attempts.
Sunday looked to be a tough day, with two more group stage games before playoffs. 7:40am saw an early start against Imperial Devils C, however, this didn’t phase Bristol, winning 2-1.
Without enough time to change out of our kits, the final group game followed against Leeds Gryphons D – a joyous team to play! Neville and Korchinov were the goal scorers of this match, closing out the group stage with a final 2-0 win to Bristol.
With a four hour break in between the playoff games, Bristol had to keep focus and get some rest – being short-benched for six games was starting to kick in. Winning the group stage ensured entry to the Gold semifinals against Northumbia Kings C, anticipated to be one of the strongest teams. Bristol’s captain #28 Marner registered (perhaps incorrectly…) an assist on Korchinov’s first goal of the game, but the clear highlight of this game was a solid goal from #44 Lord, a brand-new skater for Bristol who had only ever attended one ice hockey training! Korchinov ended with yet another game winning goal to unfortunately knock out the Kings with a 3-0 win.
Some bad news hit Bristol immediately after this game – Foley, at this point Bristol’s leading goal scorer, was banned from our final game due to …. not wearing a mouthguard. This meant heading into Gold finals against Glasgow Stags C we had a miniscule lineup of 7 skaters, already exhausted from a weekend of games. However, this saw our development players stepping up, with Viikberg recording a 10-save shoutout, #14 Nick Lin putting on some strong defensive pressure with his best shifts of the tournament, and #3 Beatrix Harper and #6 Shi equally locking in to chase down the puck. Korchinov and Neville combined for three goals to win the final game of Nationals with an undefeated record.
Following Nationals, I chatted with Michael Macgrecor-Farlie, a Bristol Lions player from 2011-12 who’d been keeping up with the Bloodhounds this tournament. His time at Nationals was much like ours; a great atmosphere and the highlight of our time playing university hockey.
'It’s beautiful to see a generation of young people being introduced to ice hockey,” he says. “The culture and atmosphere within university ice hockey is more friendly than most other non-professional sports.'
It’s been an honour to captain the first Bristol team in 13 years, and I’m very grateful to everyone who helped us make it to Nationals – this has been the first opportunity for our development players to play real games, and I couldn’t be prouder of the team for playing great hockey and enjoying themselves despite adversity.
If you’d like to get involved next year, or keep up with our future games, follow and message @bristolbloodhounds for more information.
Photo credits: https://reidysphotos.smugmug.com/
Featured image: Reidys Photos
