Most infamous incidents in the Svalbardian National Hockey League

As well as having a national hockey team that plays in NUIHF tournaments, Svalbardian also has a national league called the Svalbardian National Hockey League (SNHL). As well as this league being the best place to look for young talents to add to the national team, it also has an infamous reputation for controversy and rivalries between teams and players - this factbook lists some of the most iconic moments from the SNHL.

Whilst playing for Trondelang against Øtsirkts, Andreas Martinsen was high sticked by a player on the opposing team, which shook him up fairly badly and led to him holding his right hand to his cheek for a rather long time. Trondelang and Øtsirkts have a very strong rivalry, so it came as no surprise that as he was playing in Øtsirkts home stadium, one of the fans began mocking him and held their own hand to their cheek in mock pain. However, hilariously as his team went on the powerplay and his opponents won the next faceoff; they cleared the puck... into the crowd and onto the face of the fan who was mocking Martinsen.

After a game between Miselvigot and Stéfansville ended 5-2 to Miselvigot, their captain, Súsan Petrinka, flaunted their victory incredibly hard. This didn't go unnoticed by her opponents, however; in particular one enforcer on the other team, Nikolai Kronwall. He put a target on her back and the next time the two teams played, Petrinka was heavily targeted by all her opponents, until finally nearing the end of the second period Kronwall gave her a very strong shove after the whistle had been blown to kill the play; leading to the two getting into a fight. This fight then lasted 4 minutes and 48 seconds; resulting in Kronwall's victory, however both players were so injured they both had to stay off for the rest of the game, regardless of the fighting penalty handed out to both of them. This turned into such a large affair that a new rule had to be introduced that limited fights between ice hockey players to a minute; at which point officials have to step in and prevent the two players fighting.

In a very hotly contested game between Alsford and Illstiv, in the third period when the game was still tied at 0-0, a player named Brosí Stanstead went up to Ilistiv's goalkeeper: Thomas Greiss, and began waving his stick in his face. Hilariously, this actually led to the deadlock being broken as this stick waving distracted Greiss to the point where he didn't see Haransholm Tukachevsky take a huge slap shot and whizz the puck right past him. This incident left the referees scratching their heads, as they knew Stansted deserved a penalty for this, put didn't know which one to give him - probably because no penalty for this existed at the time. This led to the creation of a new penalty: stick waving, purely fbecause of this incident.

Jason Súvarov-Hoffasamson joined the team of Duobala, and like any normal player he was given a jersey with his name on it. Except, it didn't have his name on it - his last name was actually too long to fit on Svalbardian hockey jerseys at the time; which he was so angry about he threatened to leave the team over this. Thankfully, a new design was made a few weeks later which allowed for names to be written in smaller fonts, thus fitting his name on to the jersey and meaning he wouldn't have to leave the team.

The rivalry between Trondelang and Øtsirkts has been discussed previously in the article, however this incident exemplifies it perfectly. In the finals of the SNHL cup (the biggest tournament in national Svalbardian ice hockey), the two teams faced each other and had the two best goalkeepers in Svalbardian history playing for them: Maya o'Reily on Trondelang's side and Jøfre Macmallerstein on Øtsirkts' side. During the third period, Maya contiunally made gestures towards her opposing goalkeeper that she was looking for a fight; and eventually when the whistle was blown around nine minutes into the third period, Jøfre had had enough and dropped his gloves, preparing for a fight. Once the two had skated to the centre of the ice, the fight commenced, lasting around a minute and twenty seconds: it resulted in o'Reily's victory, however once her opponent fell she continued to punch him while he was on the floor for over twenty seconds before officials came over and stopped her. This was absolutely unacceptable and Maya o'Reily received a ban from the league for 6 seasons; however her opponent could also no longer play as he had suffered a severe hip injury due to the fight, and has been unable to play ever since; leaving Thomas Greiss as the best capable goalkeeper in Svalbard.