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
- 2012 Best Defender of the Kazakh Ice Hockey Championship
- 2013 Kazakh Cup winner with the HK Arlan Kökschetau
- 2014 Best defender and best plus / minus record of the Kazakh ice hockey championship
- 2015 British Champion with the Sheffield Steelers
- 2015 Elite Ice Hockey League All-Star Team , EIHL Best British Player and UK Defender
- 2016 British Champion with the Sheffield Steelers
- 2016 Elite Ice Hockey League all-star team and best British defender
- 2017 Elite Ice Hockey League play-off winners with the Sheffield Steelers
International
- 2015 Best Defender of the World Championship Division I, Group B
- 2016 Best Defender of the World Championship Division I, Group B
- 2016 Topscorer of the World Championship Division I, Group B
- 2016 Best Goal Preparer of the World Cup Division I, Group B
- 2017 Promotion to Division I, Group A at the World Championship of Division I, Group B
- 2017 Best Defender of the World Championship Division I, Group B
- 2018 Promotion to the top division at the World Championship Division I, Group A.
- 2018 Best Defender of the World Cup Division I, Group A.
- 2018 All-Star Team of the World Championship Division I, Group A.
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
- Ben O'Connor at hockeydb.com (English)
- Ben O'Connor at eliteprospects.com (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | O'Connor, Ben |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British ice hockey player |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1988 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Durham , England |