MANILA - Against a Thai team whose standard of ice hockey is "on another level", Singapore's game plan for the SEA Games final on Sunday (Dec 8) was always about damage limitation.

Though it ended 8-0 in Thailand's favour at the SM Mall of Asia, Singapore captain Chew Wee feels his team met expectations, having upset defending champions the Philippines in the semi-finals.

"We followed our game plan and did our best not to let the Thais pull away with the score too much. We've worked 11/2 years for this and we're happy with the silver - because we were aiming for a medal," said the 40-year-old.

In 2017, when winter sports made its debut at the biennial Games, Singapore returned from Kuala Lumpur without medals.

Chew said: "This medal is very important because ice hockey has been played in Singapore for 20-odd years and this is the first time we've won a SEA Games medal.

"Hopefully this will (attract) more young kids to join the sport and raise the level of ice hockey."

Thailand, the 2017 runners-up, scored three goals in the first period, two in the second and three in the third.

Singapore goalkeeper Kenny Liang was on the end of 55 shots on goal while his team had just six.

He said of his saves: "In terms of energy levels, I was able to keep up with the game. But their skill (level) is a little bit different from our team so we couldn't actually attack much.

"The last time we played against Thailand (on Thursday in the preliminary round) we lost 12-2, so we were just trying to keep it low."



The Singapore team with their silver medals. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG



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Singapore coach Robert Martini was proud of his charges, hailing their historic medal as a "great" achievement.

The Canadian, who became coach in 2017, said: "I was with the team in Kuala Lumpur two years ago and we finished fourth. That left a really sour taste in our mouths.

"The players have done an outstanding job committing themselves in the last two years. They train really late at night and fund their own training.

"We'll go back and keep working hard and, hopefully, bring back the gold next time."