He first played the sport at 5 and has had 17 years' competing since then.
Fazende (22), a new signing for Dunedin Thunder, has had much experience in the French national league and in the United States with Washington State University two years ago.
"I like to have fun with my ice hockey and enjoy travelling around the world," Fazende said.
He lives in Nice and is a semi-professional player with the Avignon club which has its base two hours away from his home town.
There are two levels in the national hockey league in France, with 14 teams in the elite grade and another 14 in division one.
Fazende plays in division one and his Avignon team finished third in the league last season.
To supplement his income, Fazende works as a waiter.
There are 250,000 ice hockey players in France, but Fazende is the only member of his family who plays the sport.
His elder brother was a competitive swimmer and won a silver medal in the French championships.
Fazende is a forward who used his skills to help the Dunedin Thunder give the Auckland Botany Swarm two close games last weekend.
The Auckland team won the first game 7-3, but the Thunder tightened its defence in the second game and restricted Botany Swarm to a 3-2 win.
Fazende is confident the Thunder will be able to match the Canterbury Red Devils in the two games today and tomorrow at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
"I have been impressed by the standard of ice hockey I have seen so far," he said.
"It is a pretty fast game and there are not a lot of power plays as you see in Europe."
The Dunedin Thunder plays the Canterbury Red Devils at the Dunedin Ice Stadium today at 7pm and tomorrow at 4pm.
