Lords of the rink

The crowd gasps as the ice hockey player lunges towards the sliding puck, his stick almost colliding with another player's head. Seconds later, his opponent slams him against the barricade in retort, squashing his face against the glass. Before the imprint fades, the pair are already at the other end of the rink, fighting it out for the elusive puck.

It's a scene that's become a regular occurrence at Mega Ice in MegaBox, Kowloon Bay, which installed Hong Kong's first and only international sized rink in 2007. Since then, the Hong Kong Ice Hockey League (HKL) has almost doubled in size - the new 2012/13 season started in late September, and will run until April next year.

In fact, the sport has grown so popular and so quickly that it has almost become a victim of its own success, with the existing facilities at MegaBox stretched to capacity.

There are now more than 1,000 players across a women's, youth and three men's divisions in the HKL. And there's about 200 more players in the Hong Kong Amateur Hockey Club (HKAHC) league.

Even though Hongkongers are more likely to own a pair of sandals than ice skates, locals have taken to the sport in numbers. While the top HKL division attracts mainly expatriates, about half the number of players in the other divisions in the men's and women's league - and the HKAHC league - are Hong Kong Chinese. "Once people start ice skating and do well, they get into hockey," says Keith Fong, 37, deputy general manager of operations at the MegaBox Ice Rink.

The growth has been a result of a conscious effort by the ice hockey community to develop players. "More programmes are in place these days which have given kids an opportunity to learn the sport," says Fong. "Clubs such as the Penguins, which is organised by Mega Ice, as well as the Typhoons Ice Hockey Club, have spent hours organising practices and league games."