Hariz breaks the ice with Melbourne Mustangs after making cool dream come true
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia isn’t exactly known for ice hockey, let alone a home grown player who has taken his skills to play in a professional league overseas.
But for Mohd Hariz Ananda, that dream became a reality when he was signed to play with the Melbourne Mustangs in the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL).
The 24-year-old from Kuala Lumpur has already been fielded twice, having won their first game 7-4 against the Brisbane Lightning but unfortunately lost 2-5 to Perth Thunder yesterday.
However, Hariz never thought he would pick up ice hockey when he was younger.
“When I came back to Malaysia in 2009 after my family lived abroad, all my childhood friends had started playing ice hockey.
“It’s such a small community here in Malaysia, so what were the odds that all my friends were playing this niche sport?” said Hariz.
Growing up in Petaling Jaya, Hariz would head to the ice rink in Sunway Pyramid to train with former national team coach Gary Tan until he played for the country in 2016.
“I was 16 years old when I first played for Malaysia and since then I’ve played every year until last year,” he said.
Hariz’s stroke of luck came when he went to Australia for studies and would spend time practising at the ice rink where Melbourne’s two teams – the Mustangs and Ice – would practise.
“I was fortunate because I was always around the rink practising, and slowly I got to know the hockey community around the area which led to me meeting some of the players in the AIHL.
“I had been invited to train with the Melbourne Ice and played in their academy team in the summer where I led the team in scoring.
“But they could not sign me as their foreign player quota was full, so instead the Mustangs invited me to train so I got lucky there.
“They signed me straight away. I have never looked back since then. And all this happened in the span of about nine months,” he said.
Hariz has been making himself feel at home with his new team and said the team have been wonderful in accepting him.
“Everyone in the team is so humble and friendly, they just welcomed me with open arms. I really can’t complain about anything,” he said.