82-0

The women's pre-Olympic hockey qualification tournament going on in Liepaja, Latvia, and Maribor, Slovenia, this week is pretty far, far off the radar, but it's hard to miss a boxscore like this.

Slovakia crushed Bulgaria 82-0 in a 2010 Winter Olympics qualifier in the Latvian town of Liepaja. Bulgaria conceded a goal every 44 seconds after losing 30-1 to Croatia and 41-0 to Italy.

The game was 7-0 after five minutes, 19-0 after 10, and an incredible 31-0 after only one period. Down 77-0 with three minutes to go, Bulgaria put in its backup goaltender, who promptly let in another five goals on five shots in just 1:25 of playing time.

The game's final shots on goal were 139-0. Slovakia had 12 players record hat tricks, including one 10-goal scorer, one nine-goal scorer and four others with eight. Every skater was plus-22 or better, and forward Maria Herichova led the points parade with 18. Two Bulgarians finished the game minus-39.

http://mirtle.blogspot.com/2008/09/82-0.html

Trying to rally a team down 31 goals has got to be a tough sell. It's got to take more than just stressing the fundamentals. :)

:wow:

And did Bulgaria just pull 20 people off the street for their hockey team?