URL:http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/970403/936180.html The Ottawa Citizen Online Sports Page Thursday 3 April 1997 CHINESE CHECKERS QUICK TO LEARN Women's hockey program skates from nothing to Nagano in 14 years Martin Cleary The Ottawa Citizen Here's one for Ripley's Believe It or Not: the Chinese women's hockey team will be playing in the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. How's that for a country which started women's hockey from scratch in 1983, sent two video equipment-lugging delegates to a world tournament in 1987 in Brampton, Ont., entered its first world championship in 1992, and only has about 80 registered players? From nothing to Nagano in 14 years Š now that's fast. And winning an Olympic medal is a distinct possibility. "The dominance of a couple of countries is nearing the end," said Ben Smith, the American head coach. He means China and Finland will soon be equals to Canada and the U.S., the top two countries in women's hockey. But that's the Chinese way. Pick a sport that fits the country's athletes, establish a training centre and train every day. But unlike its diving and gymnastics programs, women's hockey lacks sufficient funding, updated equipment, international experience and a deep player pool. "They've got amazing potential Š potential to vie for a medal in Nagano," said Fran Rider, a crusader for the sport and chairwoman of the fourth women's world hockey championship, which wraps up here in Kitchener Sunday. "They've set a very positive example for the rest of the world on how strong players can develop with solid effort and a system." China and Canada are scheduled to play tonight, which will conclude the round-robin part of the world championship. The winner will automatically finish first and the loser second in group A, but both Olympic-bound teams are assured berths in Saturday's semifinals. The final game is Sunday (8 p.m., TSN). China's head coach, Zhang Zhinan, smiled when asked to predict the outcome of tonight's game. "As a team, China is a little bit lower than Canada," he said last night. "In our previous two games (lopsided wins over Russia and Switzerland), we did not do our best. We will be satisfied if Team China can perform its best against Canada." In five international games since 1992, the rough-and-tumble Chinese women have yet to beat Canada. The first three games were one-sided as Canada downed China 8-0 at the 1992 world championships, 7-1 at the 1994 world championship, and 9-1 at the 1995 Pacific Rim competition. But the last two meetings have left the Canadians scratching their helmets. China forced Canada into overtime in the semifinals of the 1995 Pacific Rim before losing 3-2 after a shootout. China also lost 1-0 to Canada at the 1996 Pacific Rim tournament. China has won two Pacific Rim bronze medals, and was fourth and fifth respectively at the 1994 and 1992 world championships. A decade ago, China adopted women's hockey as a sport of the future. At the time, there were only a handful of rinks in the country, a reported 250 players and 11 teams. Most of the players were teenagers. Local governments covered the cost of the hockey program, which staged 21/2-hour practices, five days a week. The equipment was used. When China took women's hockey seriously, it looked to Western Canada for help. Rick Polutnik, who coached Team Canada in 1992, spent several months in China in 1984, and there were other exchanges over three years. Chinese players were attracted by the novelty of the game, but that's been replaced by a no-nonsense approach for the best. For the past six years, the top players spend up to nine months a year at the multi-sport training centre in Harbin, training eight times a week. Today, the Chinese are wearing CCM and Cooper equipment, but it's only updated every two years. They've improved partly by watching videotapes of NHL games from the early 1990s. Other than Wayne Gretzky, they didn't know a single player. On the ice, the patient and unrattled Chinese play a scrappy type of game and love to push the envelope on stick work. "They're very wild with the sticks," said Shannon Miller, the Canadian head coach. "They'll knock your head off. But that's part of their success right now." After the first two games at the world championships, China is the team leader in penalty minutes at 44. Despite the 18 penalties, the Chinese have only allowed one power-play goal. When the Chinese coaches started building the national team in 1991, they stressed defence. "The philosophy of defence first has helped them a lot,'' said Canadian assistant coach Daniele Sauvageau. "I believe that defence can win championships." China has frustrated Canada in their past two games with a five-player box defence in front of outstanding goalies Guo Hong and Huo Lina, who face up to 60 shots a game against Canada. "They have built their confidence and now it's a matter of scoring." China has scored 17 goals in its first two games here, matching its output for the 1994 worlds over five games. When asked when China will win the world women's title, Zhang gave a big smile and said: "In the future." Going for gold: Rivals expected to meet in final, E7 Today's games Norway vs. Finland: 4 p.m. (at Kitchener) United States vs. Sweden: 7 p.m. (at London) Switzerland vs. Russia: 7 p.m. (at North York) China vs. Canada: 7:30 p.m. (at Kitchener) Copyright 1997 The Ottawa Citizen