Ben O'Connor (ice hockey player)

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom  Ben O'Connor Ice hockey player
Date of birth December 21, 1988
place of birth Durham , England , UK
size 185 cm
Weight 90 kg
position defender
Shot hand Left
Career stations
2001-2003 Sheffield Rapiers
2002-2003 Hull Thunder
2003-2004 London Junior Knights
2004-2005 Bowmanville Eagles
2005-2006 Windsor Spitfires
2006-2007 Bowmanville Eagles
Mississauga IceDogs
2007-2008 Basingstoke Bison
Edinburgh Capitals
2008-2009 Coventry Blaze
2009-2010 Edinburgh Eagles
2010-2011 HC Morzine-Avoriaz
2011–2012 HK Saryarka Karaganda
2012-2014 HK Arlan Kökschetau
2014-2018 Sheffield Steelers
since 2018 Leksands IF

Ben O'Connor (born December 21, 1988 in Durham , England ) is a British ice hockey player who has been under contract with Leksands IF in HockeyAllsvenskan since 2018 . His father Mike was also an England international.

Career

Ben O'Connor began his career as a hockey player with the Sheffield Rapiers, a youth team from the industrial city of Yorkshire . As a 14-year-old, he played a few games for Hull Thunder in the British National League , but mostly continued to play for the Rapiers. In 2003 he moved to Canada , the country of his father's birth, for four years , where he also worked for the OHL teams of the Windsor Spitfires , which pulled him in the 14th round of the 2004 OHL Prority Selection as the 267th player the Mississauga IceDogs stood on the ice. He returned to England in 2007 and played for Basingstoke Bison , the Edinburgh Capitals and Coventry Blaze in the Elite Ice Hockey League until 2010 . After a year in France, which he spent with HC Morzine-Avoriaz in Ligue Magnus , he moved to Kazakhstan in 2011, where he worked for HK Saryarka Karaganda and HK Arlan Kökschetau , with whom he won the Kazakh Cup in 2013 and the runner-up in 2014 , was active. In the 2013/14 season he also had the best plus / minus record in the Kazakh League and in both 2012 and 2014 he was voted the best defender in the Kazakh League. In October 2014 he returned to Sheffield and has since played for the Steelers there in the EIHL. In 2015 and 2016 he won the EIHL preliminary round with the club and thus the British championship title . He himself was elected to the league's all-star team and best British defender in both years. In 2015 he was also voted the best British player in the EIHL. In 2017 he won the EIHL playoffs with the Steelers. In 2018 he moved to Leksands IF in the Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan .

International

For Great Britain O'Connor took part in the junior division I of the U18 World Cup in 2005 and the U20 World Cup in 2008 . In the senior sector, he was in his country's squad at the World Championships in Division I in 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2014 , 2015 , when he was voted the best defender of the tournament, in 2016 , when he was the best preparer and, together with the Estonian Robert Rooba, also top scorer of the Tournament was and was also voted the tournament's best defender, in 2017 when he was again voted best defender of the tournament, and in 2018 when he was again voted best defender on the tournament's All-Star team. In 2011 he scored the 3-2 winning goal for his colors in the final game against Poland and thus kept hopes of his first promotion to the top division since relegation in 1994. In the end, however, the British failed to Kazakhstan , as the Asians were able to turn their last game against Ukraine after a 2-1 deficit. Seven years later, after a 3-2 win after extra time against Hungary at the 2018 World Cup, to which O'Connor contributed the winning goal in the penalty shootout, finally the promotion to the top division.

He was also on the ice for his colors at the qualifying tournaments for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver , 2014 in Sochi and 2018 in Pyeongchang . In qualifying for the games in Sochi, the first qualifying round in November 2012 in Nikkō, Japan, was won by a 2-1 win against the Japanese team . In the second round, which took place in Riga, Latvia, in February 2013 , the British to O'Connor had to pay hardship and lost all three games.

Achievements and Awards

International

statistics

Seasons Games Gates Assists Points Penalty minutes
EIHL regular season 7th 364 64 184 248 228
EIHL playoffs 7th 21st 2 7th 9 8th
Ligue Magnus Regular Season 1 26th 3 10 13 32
Ligue Magnus playoffs 1 6th 1 1 2 6th

(Status: end of the 2017/18 season)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME O'Connor, Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Durham , England