Co-captain Akim Toussaint and Jordan Reynos scored two goals each to lead the T&T senior national men’s hockey team to victory over regional rivals Guyana 5-3 to cement a semifinal spot in the Indoor Pan American Hockey Cup in Alberta, Canada on Thursday.
Going into their penultimate round-robin match in the five-team round-robin series, the ‘Calypso Stickmen’ had three points from two matches after beating host Canada 7-3 and losing to the USA 3-4 to sit third on the standings, three behind the Americans and six adrift of the unbeaten defending champions, Argentina.
This meant, the T&T tournament winners in 2017 in Georgetown Guyana with a 7-0 blowout of Argentina in the gold medal clash needed to win one of their matches against Guyana or Argentina, who they faced last night to be certain of a top four spot and ahead of the semifinals today.
Within four minutes of their match against the Guyanese, T&T was in control with a 2-0 lead thanks to Toussaint’s two penalty conversions, both in the fourth minute.
However, a minute before the end of the ten-minute quarter, Aroydy Branford converted a penalty stroke past T&T goalkeeper Ron Alexander to get Guyana back in the match and 2-1 down, and two minutes inside the second quarter, Jamarj Assanah drew the underdogs, who came into the match with a point from a 3-3 draw with Canada on Wednesday night, level.
But, Guyana’s draw was short-lived as Tariq Marcano quickly restored T&T’s lead in the 13th minute while Reynos scored netted two penalty strokes in the 18th, and 20th minute to extend his team’s lead to 5-2.
With six minutes left in the clash, Assanah got his second of the contest to give Guyana hope of pulling off an upset, but T&T controlled the clock for the remaining six minutes, even missing a few chances, to secure the important win and moving to six points, level with USA, but ahead on goal-difference ahead of their final match against the Argentines who won the 2021 with a 4-2 defeat of host USA.
In the other match last night, the 2008 competition winner USA faced the bottom team and host Canada, four-time tournament winners (2002, 2005, 2010, and 2014), with the latter needing at least a point to move ahead of Guyana in the fourth and final semifinal spot.
For the Americans to finish top of the table they needed a huge double-digit win over Canada to improve on their minus-four goal difference and hope T&T defeat Argentina in a low-scoring contest.
Failing that, T&T and USA will meet in the first semifinal today from 1.15 pm as the second and third-placed men’s team at the end of the round-robin, with Argentina to face either Guyana or Canada in the other from 3.45 pm
The winners of the semifinals will qualify for the final at 9 pm, with the losers clashing in the bronze medal contest at 7 pm.
The semifinal winners will also secure the two spots available to the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup with T&T hoping to qualify for a third FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup appearance after participating in Vienna, Austria in 2007 and Berlin, Germany in 2018
The Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) was granted an extra spot in the World Cup after it was revealed by the FIH that teams’ qualification quotas were awarded following the FIH Indoor Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 for the top six teams whereby an additional spot was given to their respective continental federations, and not to a specific team.
This meant the teams that will fill these additional quotas will come from the Continental Championships Austria (EuroHockey); Netherlands ((EuroHockey); Iran (AHF); USA (PAHF); Belgium (EuroHockey) and South Africa (AfHF).
Yesterday’s Results
T&T 5 (Akim Toussaint 4th, 4th, Jordan Reynos 18th pen, 20th pen, Tariq Marcano 13th) vs Guyana 3 (Jamarj Assanah 11th, 34th, Aroydy Brandford 9th)
On Wednesday
Argentina 8 (Agustin Ceballos 5th, 33rd, Nehuen Ayala Gallo 7th, 37th, Facundo Navarro 22nd, 31st, Alfredo Sosa 19th, Gaston Rodriguez 29th) vs USA 1 (Ajai Dhadwal 10th)
Canada 3 (Leighton De Souza 26th, 32nd, Tarnpreet Singh 8th) vs Guyana 3 (Aroydy Branford 7th, 33rd, Jamar Assanah 12th)
Latest standings
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*Pts
Argentina*3*3*0*0*25*6*19*9
T&T*3*2*0*1*15*10*5*6
USA*3*2*0*1*10*14*-3*6
Guyana*4*0*1*3*14*22*-8*1
Canada*3*0*1*2*6*18*-12*1
Semifinal matches
Second vs Third, 1.15 pm
First vs Fourth, 3.45pm
Third place, 7 pm
Final, 9 pm