Slovakia’s women’s ice hockey team pummeled Bulgaria 82-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament for Vancouver 2010.

It was 31-0 after the first period.

55-0 after the second period.

And 82-0 after the third.

That is the largest margin of victory ever in a women’s International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned event.

(It’s not the worst defeat in women’s hockey history, however. In 1998, Thailand lost to South Korea, 92-0 during the Asia-Oceania U18 Championship.)

Here are some more of the mind-boggling stats:

–> Slovakia outshot Bulgaria 139-0 in the 60-minute game.
–> One player scored 10 goals and another scored 9.
–> 12 different Slovakian players had a hat-trick!

82 goals in one game means 1.37 goals per minute or 1 goal every 44 seconds!

On a more positive note - the Bulgarian goalie did make 57 saves in the game.

There are opponents of female hockey out there who will point to this lop-sided result and use it as an example of the lack of parity in the women’s game.

Let’s keep in mind that, even though Bulgaria’s population is almost 1/5 of the size of Canada’s, they only have 3 indoor ice rinks in the entire country and only 37 registered female players - compared to Canada’s 73,000.

I am sure the odds makers had Bulgaria’s chances of making it to Vancouver at higher than 192 to 1 - which was the ratio of “goals against” versus “goals for” for Bulgaria in the tournament.

In terms of the worldwide growth of women’s hockey, I hope that Bulgaria continues to compete and improve. The more countries that get involved in this great game, the better for our sport. The more, the merrier.

[As a side note: I am sure that you find it as interesting as I do that these types of lop-sided results get more press than a heated battle between Canada and the US at a world championship tournament.]

Until next time,

Kim