McGill's Kovacevic wins IIHF hockey gold, rushes back to write exams

NOVI SAD, Serbia - Marko Kovacevic, a native of Belgrade and forward with the McGill men's hockey team, earned tournament all-star honours while leading Serbia to their first-ever International Ice Hockey Federation's Division II, Group A, world hockey championship in Novi Sad, about 80 kilometres northwest of Belgrade, last weekend.

Kovacevic, a 6-foot-3, 218-pound winger, finished fourth among the tourney scoring leaders with 14 points, including eight goals, in five contests. The 23-year-old management senior didn't have much time to celebrate, however, as he hopped the next available airplane in order to return to McGill to write his final exams, which began Wednesday.

Kovacevic was one of four members of the Serbian squad with ties to McGill. Also in the lineup was Daniel Jacob, a Quebec City native who scored one goal, added an assist and was plus-9 over the tourney. Jacob patrolled the Redmen blueline from 2000 to 2005 and was sworn in as a Serbian citizen a few weeks ago, in order to be eligible for the event. Two other McGill hockey grads were part of the support staff, including equipment manager Ron Perowne of Montreal, who skated for McGill in the mid-1970s and therapist Murray Cobb of Roxboro, Que., who tended goal for the Redmen from 1998 to 2003.

The unlikely title almost never happened as the Serbian dressing room and all of their equipment was destroyed by fire on March 24. A frantic appeal for equipment from contacts around the world, proved successful and saved the tournament.

The Serbians were promoted to Division I for next year's world championship after winning the round-robin tourney with a perfect 5-0 record. Estonia finished second (4-0-1), followed by China (3-2-0), Iceland (2-2-1), Israel (1-4-0) and North Korea (0-5-0), which was relegated to the 2010 Division III championships.

The highest calibre IIHF world championship in men's hockey is slated for April 24 to May 10 in Switzerland.