‘Hockey is the same everywhere’: Czech Republic team visits North Dakota for tournament

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The Wild West Shootout hockey tournament started in 2020 with 16 teams. It was Mario Lamoureux’s way of growing the game in the wake of a pandemic, while contributing to the hockey community. Fast forward five years, and there are nearly 115 teams on the ice in Mandan, and they’ve come from near and very far.

A team of 13 players from the Czech Republic traveled all the way to North Dakota to compete in the tournament. They join teams competing on the ice from Canada, Montana, Minnesota, Wyoming and the Dakotas.

“I think hockey is the same everywhere,” Lubomir Stach said.

The trip for the team, called Bobri, was organized by Lamoureux’s former professional teammate, Stach, who now coaches in his home country of the Czech Republic.

“A North Dakota or a Montana kid gets to go play a team from a different country at 10-11 years old,” Lamoureux said. “It’s pretty unique and pretty special.”

Stach previously traveled to the United States to help Lamoureux with summer camps. It was then that the two joked about Stach bringing a team to come play in the Midwest, and it did not take long for the joke to turn to reality.

“I think it’s going to be great experience for them,” Stach said. “They’re having a great time. They’re enjoying it, and hopefully we’re going to have some good results, so it would make them even happier.”

It’s a chance for the athletes to get a new glimpse at the game that transcends any language barrier, and in its simplest form, still keeps kids happiest when they’re doing one thing.

“Making goals,” said Bobri player, Matyas Kruvik.

The team got to experience a Minnesota Wild game before traveling to the Bismarck-Mandan area. Players like Kruvik say the biggest difference is how much bigger everything in the United States is.

“I was fortunate to be able to move all over the world to play hockey, and you got to experience different cultures— how people are, how their countries are,” Lamoureux said. “You get a perspective on life when you get to experience those things.”

Now it’s about capturing every experience while learning more on and off the ice.

“The biggest thing they should learn from it not about hockey, not about results, but you have to be nice and kind, and most importantly be a great human being,” Stach said.

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