Harbin, China, February 9, 2025: Kazakhstan forward Alexandra Shegay is well known for producing moments of magic on the ice for the women’s national hockey team.
And she did just that when it was really needed in the women’s preliminary round Group B game against Korea at the Harbin Sport University Student Skating Hall on Sunday.
After a goalless stalemate following three periods of tense hockey, Shegay netted the winner 2:01 minutes into overtime with a solo run and beautiful finish high into the Korean net.
“She scored a beautiful goal,” said teammate Malika Aldabergenova, following the 1-0 victory.
“We really appreciate her, and we were all saying ‘good job’ to her. She is doing that a lot of times; she has a lot of moments like that, so, yeah, she had a really good goal.”
Kazakhstan’s players were fully expecting a close and tough encounter against Korea – and that’s exactly what they got. Although there were no goals in the three periods, there was plenty of quality in attack and defence, near misses and top-class goalkeeping.
Aldabergenova, 26, added: “We always have like a fight, a battle, against Korea because they are tough players and they always try their best. That’s the way they play.”
Going into overtime, Aldabergenova said the team coach advised them to just play their own game and enjoy the moment.
“Our coach said to not lose your game playing one on one; just touch the puck more, play with the puck, just keep playing good passes and just play your game, like having fun. That’s all.”
While the Koreans did not surprise the Kazakh team with their tenacity, the icy weather of Harbin has certainly made its mark on the players from Central Asia – even for Aldabergenova, who is from Almaty.
“This is not the first time I have been in China but it’s the first time in Harbin,” she said.
“It’s actually a really cold city. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t know a lot about Harbin and that’s why, when I am coming here, I am like ‘oh, it’s going to be fun’, but then I am like ‘oh, it’s really cold’.
“But we are trying to go somewhere and trying another culture, the food especially.”