Men’s and women’s 3-on-3 tournaments open with large, raucous crowds taking in the action at Gangneung Hockey Centre

The Youth Olympic Games’ first-ever men’s 3-on-3 tournament kicked off on Jan. 20 with four games. Here is a summary of the opening day games:

Men’s 3-on-3 tournament Day 1 summaries

Austria 12, Great Britain 3

Leilo Bellamy gave Great Britain a lead but it would be short-lived during the opening day of the men’s 3-on-3 tournament against Austria.

Bellamy one-timed a cross-ice feed on the small rink (the 3 on 3 event has two games going on simultaneously, with a standard-sized arena split for the two matches) to give the Brits a 1-0 lead.

As is the case in many of the 3 on 3 games, scoring first isn’t necessarily that important as the goals come fast and furious.

Austria scored four goals in the second period and took a 5-3 lead into the third. The final frame was when the Austrians did the most damage, scoring seven times and giving up no goals.

Kazakhstan 18, Poland 8

The Kazakhs held leads throughout this game – which featured tons of high-danger chances – and were ahead 3-2 after the first and 8-6 after the second.

That set the stage for the final period (teams play three periods of 15 minutes each) when the floodgates opened for Kazakhstan. They scored 10 goals, allowed just two, and iced the Poles 18-8.

Two of the nicest goals came in the third, one by Bexultan Makysh went he undressed a Polish defender and then went bar down on a backhanded shot, and the other by Adilkhan Sattar, who streaked in on the left side, went forehand to backhand and slid the puck past the Polish goaltender Bartosz Kowalik.

Denmark 11, Chinese Taipei 2
The Danes took some time to get going but their attack proved too much for Chinese Taipei.

Denmark held a 2-0 lead after the first period and, in the second, a beautiful goal where all three Danish players on the ice touched the puck gave the eventual winners a 6-0 lead. Emil Jakobsen made a glorious no-look pass to linemate Martinus Schioldan, who made no mistake with a hard snap shot that went top shelf.

Denmark added five goals in the third and the team’s stingy defence allowed just two goals against in the entire game.

Latvia 24, Spain 5

The Latvians served notice on Day 1 that they will be a force in this 3-on-3 tournament. Latvia scored nine goals in the first period – including three goals in a 45-second span – seven in the second and eight in the third during this one-sided affair.

The goal that highlighted the gap between the two teams most on this day was a pretty three-way passing play where Olivers Murnieks got the puck to Ricards Rutkis, who quickly slid it to Martins Klaucans, who finished with a one-timer for a goal.

Women’s 3-on-3 tournament Day 1 summaries

Australia 6, Netherlands 1

Eva Bout scored on a scorching wrist shot for the lone goal of the first period to give the Dutch a 1-0 lead.
But it was all Australia after that, as they scored six unanswered goals en route to the win.

Aussie captain Tara Baker scored the goal of the game in the second, picking the puck up in her corner and going end to end for the highlight-reel snipe. That made it 1-1 and got her team going, with Australia scoring four in the second and two in the third to move to 1-0 in the tournament.

China 6, Korea 3

Captain Anna Zhang scored on a nice solo effort to give China a 2-0 lead in this game.

Soon after that, though, Korea’s Yuan Han gave the home crowd at Gangneung Hockey Centre something to cheer about with a nice dangle through the neutral zone followed by a quick snap shot into the Chinese net.

China 3-1 after the first and took control in the second with three unanswered goals to make it 6-1 heading into the third. The Koreans would push back a little but couldn’t complete the comeback.

Hungary 17, Mexico 0

Reka Hiezl’s toe drag around a Mexican defender, capped with a gorgeous forehand to backhand deke for a first-period goal was a good glimpse at the strength of the Hungarians on this day.

Hungary scored five goals in the first, three in the second and nine in the third for a convincing win.

Italy 5, Turkïye 3

Melis Arslan was alone in front of the Italy net when the puck somehow came from behind the net right to her and she make no mistake to open the scoring with a backhanded goal. Italy would answer and the score was tied 1-1 after 15 minutes.

The second period was when Italy took over, outscoring its opponents 3-1 to go on to the 5-3 victory.
This game was the best of opening day, with the teams keeping it close. Turkïye got within one goal at 4-3 but that was as close as it would get in this game.