Today is the start of three weeks of ice hockey hosted at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham.
The pinnacle of the domestic season, the Elite League Ice Hockey Play-Off Finals take place over this weekend as this season’s Elite League Champions and Challenge Cup winners, the Belfast Giants, seek a clean sweep of trophies.
Trying to prevent that will be the Cardiff Devils, looking for a remarkable fourth Play-Off Final win in a row, the Sheffield Steelers and the Nottingham Panthers.
Fans from all 10 Elite League teams will excitedly descend on Nottingham in a swathe of colour – and anticipation for fans of the four participants.
The winners will be celebrating the conclusion of the domestic season on Sunday evening – but then attention turns to the national team.
Only six days later Great Britain will be playing on the same ice against World Championship hosts Latvia, before then taking on Hungary on 26 April.
These friendly matches are in preparation for GB’s own IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship -Division I, Group A, also to be held at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham.
This is one of the biggest ice hockey events ever to be held in the UK, with teams from Korea, Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Romania competing with GB for the two promotion places on offer to the World Championships in 2024. Fifteen matches take place from 29 April, culminating in the final match between the top two seeds, GB and Italy at 7:30pm on Friday 5 May.
It really is the most wonderful time to be an ice hockey fan – or to experience ice hockey for the first time.
Tickets for all upcoming ice hockey events can be found on the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham website.
