Is This Child Abuse?

You may not recognize the rather elaborate logo to the left, and that's ok because it comes from a league to which most people never pay attention. The team that wears that logo is CH Tartalo Gasteiz who play in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain in the Liga Iberdrola de Hockey Hielo. They're a relatively new team to the league as they just began play this season, and it's painfully obvious that they may need some help as they look to build the new Spanish women's team. Today's article might be an example of the worst first season for any team in any league on the planet, and it might serve as tongue-in-cheek evidence for child abuse when you hear about the details.

The CH Tartalo website doesn't jump off your browser as a site where you're going to find a lot of in-depth information. They don't even have a roster page on their site, so I'm wondering if this placeholder page is awaiting some sort of web designer or writing staff in order to make the page a little more useful. There are a few places on the page where one can click links or send an email or message to the club, but it's significantly lacking almost everything one would expect for a hockey team's website. At the very least, it needs a roster!

Obviously, there would be opportunities for women to join this new team, but, as we know, Spain is a developing hockey country. They have a decent national team that will play in the 2026 IIHF Women's World Championship Division I, Group B tournament after being promoted last season, so they're slowly rising through the IIHF's rankings. Having more places for players to play will obviously help that growth they're experiencing, so an expansion team like CH Tartalo Gasteiz is a good thing for the growth of hockey in Spain.

CH Tartalo Gasteiz, it appears, is aiming for a youth movement on their squad as they have no player on their roster older than the age of 21. They have eight players aged 15 or younger with one being 13 years-old, so you may already see the problem developing when you consider that they're playing against adult women who, in some cases, are twice their ages. Adding to their youth-team appearance is that only one player stands taller than 5'5" on their roster as per Elite Prospects. This is a young, small team that has zero experience they need to be playing in the Liga Iberdrola, but they've decided to give it everything they have this season to change that narrative.

As with any expansion team, you expect some nerves and jitters for their first-ever game in the league, but the age of the girls and lack of high-level hockey experience on the Tartalo roster may have been bigger factors as they faced Txuri Urdin on September 20 in their very first Liga Iberdrola game. After a 7-0 first period where Tartalo was outshot 23-0 in the frame, Tartalo would drop their inaugural game by a 22-0 score while being outshot 35-2 in the contest. OUCH.

For the record, Lorea Bothwell recorded the team's first shot on net in a Liga Iberdrola game in the second period, alternate captain Maria Del Hoyo recorded the team's first penalty at 13:40 of the second period for tripping which Tartalo would kill off, and goaltender Nagore Tilva stopped 22 shots in the game. Irati Romano had the other shot on net for Tartalo in the third period as Tartalo looked forward to the next game on October 4 against Kosner Huarte.

I won't go over all the details from their next five games, but I will provide you the statistics so you can determine if this team of teenagers is getting better. Scores of 16-0, 22-0, 19-0, 23-0, and 19-0 followed the 22-0 opening game, and they were outshot 216-13 in the four games that followed. The 19-0 game that they played yesterday against CG Puigcerdà had Canada West fingerprints on it, so this was a game that I kept an eye on due to those connections.

For those that don't know, former Calgary Dinos players Courtney Kollman and Annalise Meier are both playing for CG Puigcerdà this season after Kollman had a strong run with Davos in the PostFinance Swiss League while Annalise spent last season in Germany with EC Bergkamen Baren. While both had opportunities to return to those teams, they opted for a new adventure in Spain. Personally, the level of competition in the Liga Iberdrola isn't close to anything like what both Kollman and Meier played against last season, so I was curious how they'd do in the Spanish league this season as teammates.

Kollman had two goals and four assists in the opening 18:28 of play as she either scored or assisted on every first-period goal scored by CG Puigcerdà. After establishing a comfortable lead for her team, Kollman added a fifth assist and two more goals in that 19-0 blowout of Tartalo as she scored four goals on four shots in this contest. CG Puigcerdà would outshoot Tartalo by a 70-4 count. Meier, who did not dress for the game, didn't factor in, but we know she can score based on her Canada West work so this one could have been worse!

If you're doing the math at home, Tartalo has been outscored 121-0 this season while being outshot 343-17 over six games. If there is any silver lining to be found, it's that goalie Nagore Tilva does have a .647 save percentage playing against some women who have a decade of age, physical maturity, and experience on her. I'm not sure how Tartalo's coaching staff prepares this team for games, but the challenge they face right now is to put five shots on the opposing goalie in one game. That has yet to be accomplished by this team.

Of course, scoring their first goal should be treated like winning the IIHF World Championship, but we can't put the cart ahead of the horse here. It's clear that these teenagers are overwhelmed in this league, and I strongly question whether they're improving as players when the only thing they seem to do is fish the puck out of their net.

My hope would be that the leaders at the CH Tartalo Gasteiz can find a few teams that are less imposing than those in the Liga Iberdrola so the girls on Tartalo can build some confidence and work on what they practice in a game situation. Having 17 shots in six games means there's virtually zero offensive time for this team, and the 343 shots-against indicate that their defensive game is being torn to shreds.

I was being facetious in the title of this article when I used the term "child abuse", but I have never seen a collection of teenagers get beat up so badly week after week as the players on CH Tartalo Gasteiz are. My hope is that they are improving by playing against superior opposition, but the numbers seem to say otherwise. In knowing that, the toughest adversary that CH Tartalo Gasteiz may face this season is discouragement among its players that would lead them to quitting hockey. No one who is a fan of the game wants to see any players leave the game due to poor experiences.

Something has to change here for Tartalo, though. These crushing double-digit losses aren't good for anyone in the Liga Iberdrola.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!