[hckošice 13,626]

Today start the women´s Division I A world championships 2016 in Denmark. Livestreams available here

 

Day 1 program will start in few minutes with NOR vs FRA match, followed by GER vs SVK and DEN vs AUT.

 

 

[hckošice 13,626]

21 minutes ago, vlad said:

Disaster for Romania

 

but in other hand Romania reached this february a historic success in ice hockey. your player won youth olympic gold medal

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Italy advances

Beats Great Britain 6-2 in decisive game

The Italian players celebrate a first-period goal against Great Britain.

 

Italy’s new-look team booked itself a trip to Norway for the Final Olympic Qualification after a first period full of pace and power proved too much for Great Britain in the decisive game. Earlier the Netherlands took third place in Group G with a 7-3 victory over Serbia.

Italy vs. Great Britain 6-2 (3-0, 1-1, 2-1)

On paper it looked like a clash between Italian speed and British character. The host nation had used its pacey offence to great effect in the first two games, while GB showed plenty of grit to see it through some awkward moments.

But on the ice, the Italians found all the answers after cashing in on a 2+2 penalty against Colin Peacock early in the game. That power play brought two goals for the squadra azzurra. Christian Borgatello opened the scoring when his slapshot deflected off a British stick and deceived Ben Bowns. Two minutes later Anton Bernard doubled the lead, muscling his way to the loose puck as the goalie sprawled on his crease to block Alexander Egger’s shot.

GB forced its way back into the game early in the third but when SG Cortina defenceman Alexander Gellert made it 5-2 with 12 minutes to play the outcome was settled.

Gellert’s goal was greeted by a huge roar from his home fans and he was thrilled by the experience of representing his country on home ice.

“I feel really lucky to be able to play here with this great support from the fans,” he said. “Thanks to the GB fans as well – they really got some electricity into the building.”

After Italy took that early advantage, Britain had to take more risks to generate offence and find a way back into the game. That led to a more open encounter with both teams enjoying odd man rushes in a sometimes breathless passage of play. Simon Kostner, whose rush created a goal for his brother in yesterday’s win over the Netherlands, went one better in the 16th minute here, slicing through the defence before lashing an unstoppable shot past Bowns from close range to make it 3-0 at the first intermission.

“We can’t make any excuses,” GB head coach Pete Russell said. “The team that played the better hockey won the game and won the tournament. That early power play killed us, it killed the game.”

The Brits needed to seize the initiative at the start of the second period but failed to create much on a power play carried over from the first session. And, not for the first time, a lack of discipline cost GB – as against Serbia on Saturday – Russell’s team found itself with three men in the bin for a time as the midway point approached. Italy failed to add to its lead at that stage, but was able to eat up the clock and protect its advantage with ease as tempers began to bubble on the ice.

And just as yet another British penalty wound down the Italians got a fourth from another Borgatello slapshot, this time from the point. Britain then got on the scoresheet at last with a well-worked power play goal: Stephen Lee opened up a shooting lane for David Philips from the top of the circle and Ashley Tait poked it in from the slot under pressure from a defenceman.

The third period began with GB pushing hard for a way back into the game and Dave Clarke’s power play marker offered exactly that. Clarke loomed over Andreas Bernard in the Italian goal and got the vital touch on Ben O’Connor’s shot to make it 4-2 with 15 minutes to play.

That reawakened the Barmy Army as the away fans began to believe in a fairy-tale fightback but they were soon drowned out by the loudest roar of the night as Gellert made it 5-2.

“It’s mission accomplished but it wasn’t easy at all,” Gellert added. “We came here knowing we were favourite but every team put up a good fight.”

With Italy in control GB gambled on withdrawing goalie Bowns for the last minute but Italy capitalized as Anton Bernard broke and presented Joachim Ramoser with a simple goal to wrap up the win.

For Gellert and Italy that means progress towards the Olympic Games – and also progress towards a strong showing in World Championship Group I Group A in April.

“We learned a lot here,” he said. “We can’t take any team for granted and we have to stick to our style, stick to our systems, but it was a great experience for our younger players and even for older guys like me.

“International hockey is that bit quicker so it’s always good experience.”

Serbia vs. Netherlands 3-7 (0-2, 2-2, 1-3)

The battle for third place also served as a dress rehearsal for this year’s Division IIA action in Spain – and both teams will have positives and negatives to take into their meeting in Jaca on 9th April.

The Netherlands celebrated a first victory in this competition, and impressive defenceman Mike Dalhuisen felt that it was the least his team’s efforts deserved.

“I thought overall we were surprisingly good considering we only had one practice coming into the tournament we hung in there against Great Britain and, to be honest, I thought we should have beaten them,” he said. “Then we were a little better against Italy but they are a good team.”

The Dutch, relegated on home ice in Eindhoven last year, made a confident start as Mitch Bruijsten scored twice in the first half. Bruijsten moved on to 3+2=5 for the tournament, while Dalhuisen – one of the players added to the roster since the last worlds – picked up his fifth assist.

But Serbia struck back in the middle session, tying the scores on goals from Mirko Djumic and Nemanja Vucurevic by the halfway stage. With Marko Kovacevic’s men targeting a promotion push in April, this was good news against the likely favourite for the tournament in Spain.

The Netherlands regrouped, though, and rebuilt that two-goal lead late in the middle frame. Nardo Nagtzaam added a power play goal to his pair of first period assists before the impressive Dalhuisen – possibly the pick of the Dutch roster in this competition – potted his first goal in Cortina to make it 4-2.

That revival seemed to deflate Serbia and the Dutch offence was dominant in the final session, outshooting the Serbs 15-0 in the first 10 minutes without adding to the score. Then, as the pace seemed to be dropping, a short-handed goal from Dimitrije Filipovic brought the score back to 4-3 with five minutes to play.

That stung the Netherlands into life. Dalhuisen, Rainier Staats and Kevin Bruijsten found the net in the closing moments to give the final result a more emphatic look.

But for Dalhuisen it’s impossible to read too much into this game ahead of April. “I think we’ll have a totally different team for that tournament,” he said. “The Tilburg guys will be in their play-off – hopefully for them but not hopefully for the national team. We will have to keep going like we did here. It wasn’t easy to get up for this game, both teams knew it was a meaningless game, but it’s never meaningless when you win.”

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Sweet revenge

Poland advances after rare win vs. Hungary

The Polish team poses for a group photo after edging Hungary 1-0 in shootout.

 

Ten month ago Hungary won 2-1 on Poland’s ice in Krakow in a game for promotion to the top division. Today Poland avenged the loss and beat Hungary 1-0 in shootout in Budapest to advance to the Final Olympic Qualification.

Click here for a video with the game-winning goal, celebration and post-game interviews.

It was the first win for Poland against Hungary in 13 years in an IIHF-sanctioned game. Krzysztof Zapala scored the game-winning goal while all three Hungarian shooters missed the net.

“It was a very balanced game but we played well and battled hard and I was happy to score with my shot,” Zapala said.

Przemyslaw Odrobny was the other hero for Poland with a 38-save shutout as Hungary outshot the Poles 38-27.

“I’m pretty excited like all the team. It was a hard game for 65 minutes. It was war on ice. We beat them on their own ice like they did last year in Krakow, so it’s 1-1,” Odrobny said. “Both goalies faced a lot of shots, there were many fans at the arena, so it was very hot on the ice.”

It was hot for the fans either. Like ten months earlier the 9,000 spectators at the sold-out Laszlo Papp Sportarena saw a tense game with strong goaltending and disciplined play on both sides that remained exciting until the very end.

Although these two countries haven’t played each other that much in recent years, the clash has a long history in which Poland was ranked better between 1938 and 2006 while Hungary overtook the Poles in the World Championship program in 2007 and hadn’t lost to Poland in IIHF play since 2003 until this day.

The first minutes of the game belonged to the home team. After 30 seconds the Hungarian fans’ breath caught. Istvan Sofron was on a breakaway but Odrobny made a stick save to prevent an early goal. Odrobny remained in the spotlight as Hungary created the scoring chances and was awarded the first power play, although without the desired outcome. Only after more than six minutes did Poland have its first real chance with a long shot from Krystian Dziubinski.

The first period ended with 11-4 shots on goal in Hungary’s favour but the game remained scoreless as the Poles became defensively more stable and started creating more chances.

The second period was more balanced with the biggest chance coming after 11 minutes when Andras Benk had two shots right in front of Odrobny. But the 30-year-old netminder, who plays his first season abroad with Morzine-Avoriaz of the French Ligue Magnus, also mastered this situation.

On the other side Mateusz Bepierszcz had a great chance late in the middle frame with a shot while turning around but the puck went a few centimetres wide the net.

In the third frame Mikolaj Lopuski had the biggest opportunity for Poland to gain the lead after nine minutes of play when he got a loose puck in front of the net but he didn’t capitalize.

The Hungarians had more penalties which offered chances for the visiting team. At 15:39 only a huge block prevented Lopuski from scoring a late goal.

The Hungarians put more pressure on the Polish net in the dying minute of regulation time after a time-out. In overtime they had the chance to play 4-on-3 with Lopuski in the sin bin for slashing while Poland had two good shots after killing the penalty, however, the goaltenders kept the 0-0 score on the board and a shootout had to decide.

“The game was very evenly matched. We got off to a very good start. We got a lot of pucks to the net. They played well defensively, there were no blatant 1-0 opportunities,” Hungary coach Rich Chernomaz said.

“We had our chances in overtime on the power play but we didn’t succeed. I’m very proud of our players, all of them. The one thing that hurt us a bit tonight is that we were missing two defencemen in [Balazs] Goz and [Bence] Sziranyi so we had to play with six defenceman for the majority of the game.”

After Marton Vas missed with the first shot, Zapala decided the first round for Poland. Both Andrew Sarauer for Hungary and Aron Chmielewski for Poland didn’t score in the second round and when Frank Banham hit the metal from a sharp angle the Poles’ victory was sealed.

Estonia-Lithuania 4-1 (3-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Estonia finished the Olympic Qualification on a high by beating Lithuania 4-1 after having suffered to high losses.

Andrei Makrov with a pair of goals and Villem-Henrik Koitmaa with 55 saves were the heroes for the Estonians in their first win in 16 years against Lithuania.

The Lithuanians had won the last five games in the Baltic clash, most recently 6-1 and 12-3 at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in 2015 and 2013 but missing out on some national team mainstays such as Tadas Kumeliaskas from TPS Turku or Nerijus Alisauskas, busy in the Russian VHL, seemed to prove costly.

“It’s pretty amazing. Before the game I was thinking of our game in Donetsk three years ago where I got five goals from nine shots,” Koitmaa said after the game when told that the last win happened in 2000, also in the Olympic Qualification.

“Everything went great for us. I had some easy saves in the beginning. That helped to relax. Before the game we were really focused to win and the team looked confident. Despite some stupid penalties we managed to win the game.”

Estonia was outshot 56-26 but was sharper when it mattered in front of the net and defended an early led well.

Estonia had a great start and capitalized on its first two shots of the game. After 43 seconds of play Andrei Makrov opened the scoring and two minutes later Filipp Shvarogin capitalized on a man advantage for the early 2-0 lead.

Lithuania improved and dominated the rest of the period. At 13:24 they were eventually rewarded when Danielius Nomanovas scored on a rebound during a power play. But two-and-a-half minutes later the goal song “Welcome to Estonia” was back as Deniss Konyshev restored the two-goal lead.

Lithuania wasn’t able to build up the same pressure in the second period. The game remained scoreless for a while and Emilijus Krakauskas missing out on a breakaway was the best chance for the team in red. Four power plays didn’t help the team either as it didn’t capitalized on its chances while Makrov added a second marker on a power play at 3:59 of the third period for the final score of 4-1 for Estonia.

“We had a lot of chances but the Estonian team was the cleverer team. They capitalized on their chances, they had two goals on power play, we just one,” Lithuania coach Bernd Haake said.

“We worked hard but it was not enough. You need to work hard and play smart. In our next game in Zagreb we have to do that because our first game will be against Estonia.”

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Fukufuji leads Japan triumph

Goalie has huge impact in victory over Ukraine

Japanese goalie Yutaka Fukufuji celebrates with the winners' plate.

 

Stellar play from goalie Yutaka Fukufuji helped Japan edge Ukraine 2-1 in a tough battle on the final day of play in the Men's Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 Group J on Sunday at the Tsukisamu Arena in Sapporo. The victory advances the Japanese men’s national team to the next round of qualifying in September where it will try to make the Olympics for the first time since hosting the 1998 Nagano Games.

Japan vs. Ukraine 2-1 (0-0, 0-0, 2-1)

It was clear from the outset that this would be speed vs. power and that's exactly what it was. Ukraine played a very physical game from the outset, while Japan raced around their larger opponents. The game was a tight one until the third period when winger Kenta Takagi knocked in a rebound with 13:41 left.

Veteran centre Daisuke Obara made it 2-0 for Japan when he scored on a one-timer from the point past Ukraine goalie Eduard Zakharchenko on the glove side with 7:56 remaining.

The two-goal advantage was short lived, however, as Ukraine answered back on a shot by Yuri Petrangovsky past Japan goalie Yutaka Fukufuji on the stick side with 5:24.

The final five minutes were tense as the hosts tried to hang on with Ukraine applying huge pressure. Japan prevailed in the end, but it was not easy.

Fukufuji made 32 saves in the win and received profuse praise from both coaches afterward.

Japan coach Greg Thomson was relieved after the victory.

“I think both teams battled very hard until the end,” said Thomson. “It could have gone either way. We got some timely goals in the third period. Playing aggressive and smart is the right way to play. We have to use our speed. That is one of our biggest assets.”

Thomson cited Fukufuji's play as being a huge part of the result for Japan.

“Fukufuji was unreal today,” Thomson stated. “We played good hockey over all three games.”

Fukufuji said his performance was all in a day's work.

“It was a tight game. We expected that and our defence played well,” Fukufuji said. “The goal they got was deflected by one of their players to the scorer. They are big and have skills. We scored on a couple of chances and that was the difference.”

Zakharchenko, who had shutouts in the first two games, stopped 28 shots in the loss.

The first period ended scoreless despite both teams having multiple power play chances. Japan killed off three power plays, while Ukraine stopped two.

Ukraine's Volodomyr Aleksyuk was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for spearing and with 3:11 left in the first.

Ukraine had 12 shots on goal in the period, while Japan mustered nine.

In the second period Ukraine had four power-play opportunities but was unable to convert any of them into a goal as the pace of play picked up.

Ukraine got off 10 shots on goal in the second, while Japan had just seven.

Petrangovsky said he was ready when his chance came.

“I took a pass from my teammate (Artem Gnidenko) and put it in,” Petrangovsky commented on his goal. “It is a play we have used in practice many times.”

Petrangovsky felt the Japan team utilized their strengths in the triumph.

“They are fast and have several skill players,” Petrangovsky said. “There were no surprises. We have gone against them before in the World Championships. They just played their game.”

Ukraine coach Olexander Savystky was not down despite the loss.

“We are building a new team,” Savystky commented. “This was the first tournament for many players. We are proud of both the veterans and young players.”

Savystky summed up the difference in the game in concise fashion.

“Modern hockey today is a game of mistakes and today we made one more,” Savystky said. “Today the goalie is 80-90 per cent of the game. Fukufuji played more than very well.”

Romania 1 Croatia 4 (0-1, 1-2, 0-1)

Croatia defeated Romania 4-1 on Sunday at the Tsukisamu Arena in Sapporo. Both teams entered the contest with 0-2 records, having lost their games against Japan and Ukraine.

Croatia goalie Mate Tomljenovic made 24 saves in the victory.

Croatia set the pace in the first period, attacking relentlessly and taking 20 shots on goal against Romania's Attila Adorjan. Dominic Kanaet gave Croatia the lead with 13:01 left in the opening period when he flipped in a backhander directly in front of the goal.

Romania squandered a good chance to score when they had a two-man advantage on a 5-on-3 power play with 2:57 left in the period but came up empty. They had just seven shots on goal in the first.

The game opened up in the second period with both teams playing more fluidly. Romania equalized with 13:30 left in the second when Zsolt Molnar fired in a shot past Tomljenovic from the slot.

Croatia retook the lead with 8:52 left on a slapshot by Luca Mikulic from the slot.

The Croats boosted their lead to 3-1 on a spinning shot by Mario Novak in front of the net with 51 seconds remaining in the second.

The final period was a wide open affair with both teams being aggressive but unable to find the net until near the end of the frame.

Romania called a time-out with 2:49 left and pulled Adorjan, but could not capitalize with the extra attacker.

Croatia closed out the scoring when Marko Sakic fired the puck into the empty net with 1:07 left.

Adorjan stopped 37 shots in the loss.

Croatia coach Danijel Kolombo was happy to end the competition with a win.

“This was a great tournament for us,” stated Kolombo. “All three games were good. We knew we could play against Romania and compete against the other two even though they are a level higher than us.”

Kolombo said his squad did what they came for in Sapporo.

“We accomplished all of our plans,” commented Kolombo. “The players have played many games this season so fatigue is an issue. But I'm happy with how hard they played.”

Romania coach Kjell Lindqvist did not hide his disappointment after his team's third straight defeat.

“With this roster we only scored one goal in three games. That isn't good enough,” said Lindqvist. “After two tough games we had no power today. Our penalty-killing was good, but that was about it.”

Lindqvist admitted that his side was in a tough situation.

“The team is tired and we are missing key players,” he noted. “But we have to battle better.”
 

[hckošice 13,626]

Set for a showdown

OQ Gr. G: Netherlands-Italy 2-4, Great Britain-Serbia 6-2

Italian forward Kevin Devergilio scores on Dutch goalie Martijn Oosterwijk.

 

It’s winner takes all on Sunday night as Italy and Great Britain improved to 2-0 in this tournament. Both teams had to battle to win their games on Saturday but Italy got past the Netherlands 4-2 after the Brits downed a hard-working Serbia 6-2 in the earlier game.

Netherlands vs. Italy 2-4 (1-2, 1-1, 0-1)

Italy paid tribute to its hockey history before taking another step towards Olympic qualification with a 4-2 victory over the Netherlands on Saturday night.

The evening began with a celebration as Cortina commemorated two favourite sons. Brothers Gianfranco and Alberto da Rin were born in the town in the 1930s and became mainstays of SG Cortina and the Italian national team. Gianfranco played here in the 1956 Winter Olympics and was joined by younger brother Alberto in Innsbruck in 1964. The two were on hand for a special pre-game ceremony attended by IIHF President Rene Fasel.

There was also a minute’s silence in honour of 1956 Olympic goalie Giuliano Ferraris, who passed away last Sunday before the action got underway in breathless style.

Just 39 seconds had been played when Marco Insam put the Italians in front, wrestling in the slot and forcing the puck inside Martijn Oosterwijk’s near post. But that lead lasted just minutes as the Netherlands hit back through youngster Tom Marx to tie the scores.

The two teams traded chances but it was Italy that got back in front in the tenth minute thanks to another pair of brothers. Simon Kostner set off on a rush from centre ice, slaloming through the defence to set up Diego for the decisive touch on the slot.

The Dutch thought they’d tied the scores during a 5-on-3 power play. Kevin Bruijsten found the net when he swung at a bouncing puck but Orange boom turned to Orange bust when it was chalked out for a high stick. Furious, the Netherlands lost some focus and failed to threaten for the rest of its advantage.

But the Netherlands did make it 2-2 eight seconds into the second period. Mitch Bruijsten harried from the face-off and picked out captain Diederick Hagemeijer in space at the far post.

“It wasn’t pretty,” admitted Italy’s head coach Stefan Mair. “This is a young group and a lot of them don’t get to play that many minutes in important games for their clubs. Situations like this are a big thing to help them get better down the road and gain experience.”

That stung Italy into action and the host nation proceeded to have the better of the middle stanza. Luca Frigo should have done better when a loose pass from Jordy van Oorschot presented him with the puck and the freedom of the Italian zone.

Then Insam thought he had his second of the evening midway through the frame. His slap shot from the blue line rattled both posts but the video showed that it did not go in. Simon Kostner also hit the bar before Kevin Devergilio finally made the pressure tell, touching home a tic-tac-toe move involving Paul Zanette and Armin Helfer in the 34th minute.

“I’ve got to give Holland credit,” added Mair. “They played with a lot of grit. Playing Serbia first maybe wasn’t the best start because they didn’t really hit us. The Dutch came out and hit us hard from the start and we had to adjust because we’re not used to that physical game. But in the end, with the times we hit the crossbar, I think we deserved the win.”

The third period saw the Netherlands absorbing more pressure as Italy’s extra pace began to tell. But the home offence was having to work hard for its opportunities and it wasn’t until the 52nd minute that Italy finally got some breathing space. The impressive Diego Kostner wrestled for the puck down on the boards and fed Luca Frigo for a wrist shot that flashed upstairs to make it 4-2.

Great Britain vs. Serbia 6-2 (2-1, 2-1, 2-0)

GB’s Colin Shields became his country’s second-highest goal scorer in the modern era with a goal in a 6-2 victory over Serbia. He took his tally to 34, and two in this competition, moving to within six goals of British hockey legend Tony Hand. Gerry Davey, a star of the British team of the ’30s and ’40s, holds the all-time record with 43 goals in 45 games.

“When I was growing up Tony was a legend in his own right, someone who we all look up to and who did a lot of great things for British hockey,” Shields said. “I’m still a few behind him but this is a proud moment.

“I’ve had a lot of years on the national team and played with some great players. A lot of good guys have passed me pucks and this is something to remember.”

But while the Brits go forward to a win-or-bust showdown against Italy tomorrow there was also much for Serbia to celebrate after a big improvement on Thursday’s 0-8 reverse against the host nation.

The Balkan nation generated far more offence than it managed in game one and it wasn’t until an extended 5-on-3 power play late in the second period that Britain finally earned the comfort of a two-goal lead.

GB shaded the first period after Shields opened the scoring in the fifth minute. The Belfast Giant circled off the left-hand boards and found open ice in front of goal as he fired past Arsenije Rankovic from between the hatchings.

But Serbia had learned from its opening day experience and tied the scores five minutes later. The goal came from a defensive error – GB turned over the puck on its blue line – and Andrej Zwick quickly fed Nenad Rakovic for his country’s first goal here in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

That gave the Serbs a visible boost in confidence and the White Eagles began to produce far more offence than it managed against the host nation. By the first intermission Marko Kovacevic’s team had produced twice as many shots as it managed in the whole of its first game.

However, it was unable to get on the scoreboard again and GB found a way back in front thanks to Matty Davies’ first ever international goal. Robert Lachowicz was the architect, skating across the deep slot to pull the defence out of position before a well-weighted backhand pass picked out Davies with a clear look at the net for the finish.

That didn’t deter the outsider, though. Serbia began on the front foot in the middle session and GB quickly ran into penalty trouble. Mark Garside and Stephen Lee were cooling their heels in the sin bin when Uros Bjelogrlic forced the puck home at the far post to tie the scores once again.

“It was a tough game,” Shields added. “We knew that they would come out hard, their goalie came up with some big saves and blocked a lot of shots but we knew if we kept getting the puck to the net, kept making our plays, we would get the rewards.

“Maybe we tried to over-complicate things at times – it was a scrappy game – but we got the win.”

Shields helped to put GB back in front, getting an assist as David Phillips’ shot from the point was tipped in by Jonathan Boxill for his first goal for his country, but it wasn’t until Serbia ran into penalty trouble of its own that the British gained that two-goal lead. Lee thumped a shot against the post and it flashed out for Dave Clarke to sweep low past Stefan Ilic’s desperate attempt to clear on the line.

The third period produced fewer opportunities until a power-play goal from Clarke, finishing from close range off Craig Peacock’s pass, and a short-handed solo effort from Lachowicz made the final score 6-2.

For Serbia a second defeat was no disgrace. Recently-appointed head coach Marko Kovacevic admitted before the tournament that his team’s main goal was to acquit itself well and make progress towards its World Championship campaign in Spain later this year.

“We won’t face teams like this so often so it’s nice to see players who are on a different level than us,” Kovacevic said. “Maybe we can pick up some stuff that we see and use it ourselves.

“Don’t get me wrong – we’re all athletes, we all want to win every game, but we understand that the main goal of our season comes in April and that’s what we’re working for here. We know what we want to see in these games and if we can do what we agree in the dressing room that’s a success for us.”

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Japan, Ukraine score high

OQ Gr. J: Japan-Romania 7-0, Ukraine-Croatia 6-0

The Japanese players celebrate a goal in the 7-0 routing of Romania.

 

Japan and Ukraine scored decisive victories on the second day of play in the Men's Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 Group J on Saturday at the Tsukisamu Arena in Sapporo. Japan routed Romania 7-0, while Ukraine pounded Croatia 6-0. The results set up a title match between the two winners on Sunday. The winner will advance to the Final Olympic Qualification round in early September.

Japan vs. Romania 7-0 (0-0, 5-0, 2-0)

Japan broke open a tight game with five goals in the second period as Shuhei Kuji, Yushiroh Hirano, Hiroki Ueno, Masahito Nishiwaki and Daisuke Obara all found the net.

The first period was a scoreless one that saw Japan dominate puck possession. Japan fired 16 shots on goal but could not score.

Romania managed only three shots in the opening frame.

Japan's quickness was evident as the Romanian skaters struggled to keep up with the pace of the hosts. Japan had the lone power play in the period, but was unable to take advantage of it.

Kuji broke the deadlock with 14:31 left in the second when he scored from the slot on a 3-on-1 break on a nice pass from Obara.

Romania hung tough until Hirano flipped in a shot just off the crease with 6:37 left in the frame.

The floodgates opened soon after as Ueno took a long pass and scored on a breakaway at 4:31. Nishiwaki and Obara then scored within 94 seconds and it was suddenly 5-0 as the Romanian defence became porous. Romania goalie Geller Ruczuj did his best but could not halt the onslaught.

Kuji added a second goal in the third period and Takuro Yamashita closed out the scoring with 2:37 left in the game.

Japan goalie Takuto Onoda made 14 saves and posted a shutout in his debut for the senior national team.

“I was a little bit nervous before the game. We had to win this one," said Onoda. "This gives me confidence. My performance was 100 percent tonight.”

Kuji was content with his two-goal outing in the victory.

“It was good that everybody played well tonight,” Kuji said. “In my mind I am always thinking about scoring. Tonight was good for me and the team.”

Japan coach Greg Thomson appeared pleased with the performance of his charges.

“I felt the team played a very good hockey game tonight,” said Thomson. “We didn't score any goals in the first period, but we stuck to our game plan and they came in the second.”

Thomson pointed out that this is the way it goes on occasion.

“Sometimes that's how it is in sports,” Thomson stated. “You don't get it on the first or second try, but it comes on the third. We stuck to our game plan and they started going in. You really have to concentrate in games like this.”

Romania coach Kjell Lindqvist was honest with his feeling after the defeat.

“Japan is one or two divisions better than us,” commented Lindqvist. “They are very speedy. Sometimes too speedy. It is tough for a slow team like us to be able to stop their rushes.”

Lindqvist felt his team had few decent opportunities on the night.

“We had maybe two or three good chances to score,” Lindqvist said. “Japan was too good for us. We have to accept that.”

Ukraine vs. Croatia 6-0 (3-0, 1-0, 2-0)

Goalie Eduard Zakharchenko recorded his second straight shutout as Ukraine blanked Croatia 6-0 on Saturday at the Tsukisamu Arena.

Georgi Kicha scored his first goal for the Ukrainian national team and added two assists in the victory.

Ukraine's speed and power proved too much for Croatia to handle. Ukraine fired 57 shots on goal to Croatia's 26 in the triumph.

Croatia is 0-2 after the defeat and has yet to score in the tournament.

Ukraine wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, as Artem Gnidenko flipped in a shot near the crease just one minute into the first period. Kicha and Yuri Petrangovsky assisted on the goal.

The game quickly moved into a fast-paced affair and Ukraine boosted their lead to 2-0 with 12:32 left in the first when Olexander Pobyedonostsev scored on a one-timer from the point. Artem Bondaryev had an assist on the play.

Petrangovsky put in a rebound of a missed shot by Kicha with 4:18 remaining and Ukraine was in command with a 3-0 advantage.

All of Ukraine's goals were scored at full strength despite the fact they had four power-play opportunities in the period.

Croatia goalie Vilim Rosandic did well to keep it at 3-0, as he stopped 19 shots in the opening frame.

Kicha scored from the slot on a power play to make it 4-0 with 15:54 left in the second period.

Croatia played better in the second, picking up the pace and creating a few scoring chances with 10 shots on goal. Ukraine killed off two power plays in the second.

The third period provided more of the same, as Croatia scored on goals by Roman Blagy and Bondaryev for the final margin.

Ukraine coach Olexander Savytsky thought his team played well.

We asked our wingers to make fewer mistakes in the offensive zone, commented Savytsky. "They played more active than Thursday. It was good."

Savytsky noted that getting the first goal was significant.

We scored the first goal quickly and that really helped us, Savytsky said. "We kept up the pressure after that."

Croatia coach Danijel Kolombo knew his squad was facing a tough test.

It's hard to play against a pro team with an amateur team, stated Kolombo. "They scored early in the first and after that moment we started to chase the game, which isn't good in hockey. We made four penalties (in the first period) after that and could not get back on track."

Zakharchenko gave the credit to his fellow players following the contest.

Today's game was a bit easier than yesterday, because it was the first game, said Zakharchenko. "My teammates played well in front of me. I especially want to cite the play of No. 4 [Vsevolod Tolstushko], who blocked many shots."

Kicha was pleased with his contribution in the win.

It was a great feeling to get my first points for the national team, stated Kicha. "We feel better after acclimatizing ourselves here. The team was in a good condition today.

Ukraine defeated Romania in their opening match on Thursday, while Japan downed Croatia 3-0

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Hungary, Poland set up final

OQ Gr. H: Hungary-Estonia 7-1, Poland-Lithuania 9-1

 

The two co-favourites of the Olympic Qualification Group H, Hungary and Poland, were on fire also on the second day. Host Hungary beat Estonia 7-1 while Poland was on a roll in a 9-1 victory in the neighbouring clash with Lithuania. The two teams set up a winner-takes-it-all game on Sunday at 18:00.

Hungary vs. Estonia 7-1 (2-0, 2-1, 2-0)

Like against Lithuania, Hungary entered the game against Estonia as favourite and left it with a safe and sound 7-1 win in front of 8,100 fans at the Laszlo Papp Sportarena.

“We played with the same mentality like in the game before [against Lithuania]. We have a hard game on Sunday and we need to play well for 60 minutes and that’s what we did,” said Peter Vincze, who scored a pair of goals in the last period.

This time the Hungarians had to wait even less long to see their team take the lead. At 1:50 Estonian goaltender Villem-Henrik Koitmaa blocked two shots but when Istvan Sofron scored high on the second rebound it was the one shot too much for him.

The Estonians had few chances to score a goal and just as they had missed out on their first man advantage, Vilmos Gallo had a breakaway and beat Koitmaa with fine stickhandling for the 2-0 goal at 15:12.

In the middle frame the Magyars converted their first power play. At 3:31 Istvan Sofron scored after nice drop pass from Daniel Koger, however, with a similar play on the other side Robert Rooba, assisted by Andrei Makrov, brought Estonia on the scoreboard three minutes later and cut the home team’s lead to 3-1.

Rooba was not surprised about the clear score in the end. “It’s a bunch of professional guys against a bunch of amateur guys. It was a tough game the second day in a row and we became tired. I’m proud of our guys, we battled hard and gave our best and learned a lot,” said Rooba, one of the few pros on the team as he plays in Finland.

The goal didn’t change the direction of the game too much and Frank Banham with a goal midway through the game and Vincze with a point shot at 4:15 of the third period extended the lead to 5-1. The 20-year-old added another goal on a power play with 3:33 left in the game, which means that three of the seven goals were scored by players nominated for the fourth line.

“In the end it’s a team game, so it doesn’t matter who scores but of course we are happy that we managed to score,” Vincze said with a smile.

After contributing two assists, also Andrew Sarauer scored tipping the puck in after a rebound on a power play with 87 seconds left.

Despite the result, Hungary head coach Rich Chernomaz was not entirely satisfied and wants to see more from his team in the last game.

“I thought we were a little bit slow in our thinking and moving pucks. It wasn’t the way it was in last night’s game. I was thinking maybe our team was fatigued but in the third period the passion and fire came back in the third period,” he said. “These are things we definitely need to have for three periods to have a chance to beat Poland. The team that makes the least amount of mistakes will probably be the successful team.”

The teams will have a day off on Saturday before Hungary takes on Poland in a showdown for first place. The winner of that game will advance to the Final Olympic Qualification. Lithuania and Estonia will be looking for their first win and third place in the all-Baltic afternoon game on Sunday.

Poland vs. Lithuania 9-1 (2-0, 5-0, 2-1)

Poland had another strong showing and beat Lithuania 9-1 in a game they were outshooting their opponent 56-39.

Poland was the stronger and most notably more efficient team while the Lithuanian underdogs seemed exhausted from their game last night against Hungary. The second period made the difference for the Poles with five unanswered goals.

Krystian Dziubinski and Krzysztof Zapala each had a pair of goals while Przemyslaw Odrobny had 38 saves in what seemed to become a shutout until Daniel Bogdziul’s marker for Lithuania late in the game.

“The second period was very good for us. We played very well,” said Tomasz Malasinki. “But the most important game will be on Sunday. It will be a very hard game because the Hungarian team is very strong.”

Like in the last game against Hungary the Lithuanians showed a remarkable penalty kill to start the game, however, they’d do better if they didn’t test their four-man and three-man units too often against higher-ranked opponents.

After Poland hadn’t capitalized on a 5-on-3, the game flow became a bit more balanced, however, at 15:01 Grzegorz Pasiut opened the scoring for Poland on a rebound.

The Poles used these strong minutes for a momentum chance and Aron Chmielewski made it 2-0 on a rush just two minutes later.

Poland tried to blow away any doubts about the winner of this game early in the second period. After 35 seconds Lithuania was outskated and Zapala netted the puck for the 3-0 lead.

Although the teams were almost equal in shots on goal during the last two periods, the Poles outskated the team from their northern neighbours and added one goal after another against the seemingly tired Lithuanians.

Maciej Urbanowicz hit the back of the net at 3:12 of the second period. After a few shifts the Poles were back on power play and Dziubinski converted for the 5-0 goal. Tomas Malasinksi added another one with 2:31 left in the period and Dziubinski increased the damage for the Lithuanians with another power-play marker 18 seconds before the end of the middle frame.

The Lithuanians changed goalies for the last period. Mantas Armalis, who had a strong game the night before, made space for Artur Pavliukov, who was beaten by Zapala after just 33 seconds. Mateusz Bepierszcz added another marker at 12:20 before Bogdziul scored Lithuania’s consolation goal to cut Poland’s lead to 9-1 and spoil Odrobny’s shutout.

“We were tired from yesterday, it was really tough for us. A day off would have helped us today,” Bogdziul said. “We are a very young team, some are just 18 years old. Now we have the last game against Estonia and want to win it.”

Also Poland will have a day of rest before the deciding game against host Hungary in the quest for a berth in the Final Olympic Qualification. Hungary missed out on it last time when losing to the Netherlands while Poland was beaten by Ukraine in the deciding game. This time one of the two teams will likely make it.
 

[hckošice 13,626]

Goals rush in Italy

OQ Gr. G: Italy-Serbia 8-0, Great Britain-Netherlands 6-5

Kevin Devergilio and Stefano Marchetti celebrate a goal for Italy while Serbian netminder Arsenije Rankovic looks on

 

There were 19 goals in two games as host nation Italy made an impressive start to its Olympic campaign with a dominant display over outsider Serbia after the British and the Dutch served up a thriller in the opening game in Group G.

Italy vs. Serbia 8-0 (3-0, 3-0, 2-0)

A goal after just 60 seconds set the tone for Italy’s opening game against Serbia. Stefano Marchetti struck in the first minute as a youthful Serbian team, more accustomed to Division II hockey, got its first look at an opponent at this level.

That was the prelude to an opening stanza of almost total Italian domination: two further goals and a shot count of 20-1 in favour of the home team. Without some brave goaltending from Arsenije Rankovic, especially in a flurry of action late in the period, the damage could have been even greater.

As it was Nicholas Plastino doubled the lead in the 13th minute off a Marco Insam pass before Kevin Divergilio added to his assist on the opener by unleashing a savage wrist shot that whipped upstairs after Paul Zanette’s drop pass opened up a look at goal.

Italy’s play had the home crowd in party mood, greeting each attack with a clanging cow bell – a mountain tradition not confined to Switzerland – and serenading the goals with a thunderous pounding on the wooden frame of the venerable Olympic Stadium.

The middle session followed a similar pattern, with Italy continuing to fire in an average of one shot every minute. Three further goals followed, while the piping denied Thomas Larkin and Daniel Frank as the game often resembled an offence vs. defence training drill.

To Serbia’s credit, though, the defence stuck doggedly to its task and kept Italy at bay for almost 13 minutes of the second period with Rankovic again providing good resistance to the onslaught. Frank beat him on 32:59, and after hitting the post twice Italy went on to add two more before the second intermission.

A good combination involving Marchetti and Zanette got the puck to the net where Markus Gander sowed confusion before the puck was bundled over the line. Then Alexander Egger added a sixth before Serbia enjoyed its first power play of a difficult evening, finally earning a little respite from the blue tide surging inexorably towards its goal.

“I think we went out there with the right approach,” Egger said after the game. “We kept going to the end, all four lines were skating hard. We kept them down in the their own end and it was a good start to the tournament for us.”

By now it was already a question of ‘how many?’. Diego Kostner added a seventh early in the third, Plastino got his second of the night on a solo rush. That brought Rankovic’s evening to a merciful end with eight minutes left to play and gave 19-year-old Petar Stepanovic a spell in the firing line. He managed to keep the Italians at bay with 19 saves despite some intense pressure. At the other end goalie Andreas Bernard needed just four saves for his shut-out.

After such a convincing opening-day victory, Italy now has to prepare for tougher tests ahead.

“We didn’t know what to expect from Serbia, it’s a team we’ve never played before, so it was a good start but we are aware that there will be probably be tougher opponents coming up,” Egger added. “It’s a win and we’ve started the tournament the right way.”

Great Britain vs. Netherlands 6-5 (2-1, 2-2, 2-2)

These two countries have been rivals in recent World Championship Division I events and they demonstrated that they had a good understanding of each other’s weak spots as fans in the Dolomites witnessed an avalanche of goals.

Britain finally claimed victory – by the odd goal in 11 – on a Mark Richardson goal in the 56th minute. His initial shot got caught up in a Dutch defenceman but he was first to the rebound and scored on the wrong-footed Martijn Oosterwijk to end the Netherlands’ resistance. Dutch penalty trouble in the closing stages helped GB to close out a game that was high on entertainment but that will give both defences sleepless nights as the goals flew in.

Russell Cowley, a double goalscorer for GB, admitted that the result was better than the performance. “There’s a few things we need to clean up. We can definitely say we’re happy with the win but as a team we know we are better defensively than we showed at times tonight.”

GB was officially the home team for this one, and with a raucous travelling band of about 100 supporters the atmosphere in the arena was loudly pro-British. But those fans were stunned into silence in the third minute when the Netherlands opened the scoring on the first power play of the game. Ronald Wurm got the goal, exploiting the extra space around the net to score from close range after Mitch Bruijsten shot into Ben Bowns’ pads.

Back to full strength, the Brits were back on level terms almost immediately. Defencemen David Phillips and Ben O’Connor combined in centre ice and the latter pulled out a defence-splitting pass to set Cowley through on goal. The Coventry Blaze frontman slipped his shot through the five-hole to level the scores.

The O’Connor-Phillips axis was back in business for the second British goal. O’Connor fed the puck along the blue line and Phillips launched a slap shot from the point to send his team into the first intermission with a 2-1 advantage.

And the pair combined again midway through the third to make it 3-1. This time it was Phillips’ pass and O’Connor’s shot, with Matt Myers forcing the puck through Oosterwijk’s pads.

If GB thought it had built a decisive advantage, it was quickly proved wrong as a double Dutch strike in just 55 seconds levelled the scores. Mike Dalhuisen assisted on both of them. First, on 33:06, his shot from the point deflected off a GB skate for Kevin Bruijsten to fire home. Then on 34:01 the defenceman stepped up to send in a rising shot that had Bowns juggling on the crease before the puck dropped for Maarten Brekelmans to slip it into an empty net from a tight angle.

GB head coach Pete Russell added: “At 3-1 I thought we controlled it a little bit but those two goals in 55 seconds were not good. We certainly didn’t help ourselves at times but it was a win and that’s what sport is all about.”

Parity lasted just two minutes. Britain had been profiting from diagonal plays all evening and when Ashley Tait slipped the puck into the danger zone from the top of the circle, Cowley stretched out with his stick to deflect it past Oosterwijk and make it 4-3.

“At least we showed good character,” coach Russell added. “When team loses a lead, then loses a lead again, sometimes it can collapse a bit but I don’t think we ever did that.”

The action remained frenetic in the final stanza. Dalhuisen was prominent once again, racing round the back before popping up the puck for an unmarked Kevin Bruijsten to join his brother on the scoresheet and tie it at 4-4 before GB edged in front once more with 10 to play. Colin Shields shot from the point, Myers threw up the screen on Oosterwijk.

But there was still more to come. Diederick Hagemeijer went high on Bowns off a Nardo Naagtzam pass to tie it up once again before Richardson got the eventual game-winner in the 56th minute.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Favourites open with wins

OQ Gr. H: Lithuania-Hungary 0-4, Poland-Estonia 6-2

Patryk Wronka celebrates his opening goal with Polish teammate Krystian Dziubinski while Estonia’s Deniss Konyshev looks on.

 

Hungary opened the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 Group H on home ice with a 4-0 blanking of Lithuania while Poland had a clear 6-2 win over Estonia in the afternoon game.

Lithuania vs. Hungary 0-4 (0-1, 0-1, 0-2)

Hungary had a successful start on home ice in Budapest with a 4-0 shutout win against Lithuania before ending the day with a teddy-bear toss as a donation to children.

The Lithuanian national team travelled to Budapest for an Olympic Qualification event for the third consecutive time and like in 2012 (5-1) and 2008 (5-2) it was the Hungarians, who won at the Laszlo Papp Sportarena in front of 7,110 fans.

“Lithuania competed very hard, they were missing some of their best players here but their goaltender was very sharp. We had good chances in the first period and then finally scored,” Hungary coach Rich Chernomaz said.

“We played a simple game and continued to play a hard game although in the second period we became a bit sloppy with the puck management and allowed some turnovers. Tomorrow we want to continue play the right way against Estonia.”

Hungary came out strong right from the start and outshot its opponent 60-19. Being the team recently promoted to the top division of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and playing in front of their own fans in a crowded and loud arena the Magyars visibly wanted to fulfil their task.

Csaba Kovacs and Janos Vas had the best chance early in the game at 2:16 with a nice combination but the Lithuanians stood strong and tried to create offensive action as well although they had the best chance while playing shorthanded with a Paulius Gintautas breakaway. During those minutes Hungary had the chances for an early lead as Lithuania took two straight penalties but the game remained scoreless.

It was especially thanks to goaltender Mantas Armalis, who plays in the Swedish top league for Djurgarden Stockholm, that the game remained scoreless until 14:25. That’s when the work eventually paid off for the Hungarians with a shot from Vilmos Gallo on the right side that first hit Armalis. Krisztian Nagy stood ready for the rebound but the puck moved in via Armalis pads as he turned around. Like Armalis also Gallo plays in the top Swedish league, for Linkoping. The 19-year-old moved to Sweden as a junior six years ago and it was his first goal in his first-ever game with the senior national team.

“It was an amazing atmosphere and it was very special to score in my debut game. It was not a nice goal but a goal is a goal,” Gallo commented after the game.

Hungary also had more puck possession and scoring chances then their Baltic opponent in the middle frame and at 7:43 Janos Hari scored on a rebound after Armalis had blocked Istvan Bartalis’ shot.

The game was still far from over when the teams entered the ice for the third period but when Frank Banham made it a three-goal lead for Hungary with a long shot during a man advantage at 2:23, Lithuania’s hopes for a comeback were diminished.

At 5:09, just after the Lithuanians had missed out on a chance on the other side, Daniel Kiss even made it 4-0 with a shot into the top-right corner on a counter-attack.

“For the first time in [post-war] history Lithuania played against a top-division team and we saw why they play there,” Lithuania head coach Bernd Haake said. “4-0 is not so bad. They had a lot of shots but we had an outstanding goaltender. We had two hundred-per-cent chances that could have made the score friendlier and if you’re an underdog you better capitalize on such chances.”

Poland vs. Estonia 6-2 (3-0, 2-1, 1-1)

Seven places separate Poland (22nd) and Estonia (29th) in the IIHF World Ranking and also in the last two meetings at Division I tournaments Poland won both clashes when going head to head against Estonia, 5-3 in 2013 and 8-3 in 2011, both times in Ukraine.

Also in Budapest the Poles wanted to make it right and dominated the game from the beginning until the end, outshooting their opponent 64-16.

“It was a good start for us. Estonia has been getting better and better the last few years. 6-2 is a good score but we have to play better,” Polish forward Aron Chmielewski said about his team’s first game and the upcoming ones against better-ranked Lithuania and Hungary.

Patryk Wronka, in the so far biggest tournament for the 20-year-old, already opened the scoring after 110 seconds of play in a first period that was one-way hockey for most of the time. Aron Chmielewski, who spent the last two seasons in the top-three Czech leagues, made it 2-0 on the Poles’ second power play after a horizontal pass in front of the crease from Grzegorz Pasiut at 15:00. Four minutes later Kacper Guzik made it a three-goal lead for Poland.

Estonia had a good start into the second period with team captain Aleksandr Petrov scoring the team’s first marker on a breakaway. However, the Poles reacted fast. 51 seconds later Mateusz Bepierszcz capitalized on his own rebound and another minute later Marcin Kolusz made it 5-1 for Poland, forcing Estonia coach Jussi Tupamaki to take his time-out but as it turned out the game was more or less decided with this score early in the second period.

“It was a rough start but we got better period by period and gained confidence. I hope we can continue getting better with the things we do but it will be probably even harder against Hungary. Most of our players don’t play hockey professionally,” said Estonian assistant coach Mart Eerme.

The game flow didn’t change much after the time-out but Estonia kept its net clean for the remainder of the period and at 3:08 of the third frame Petrov even scored his second goal to make it 5-2. However, Poland continued to be in charge of the game and Mateusz Rompkowski replied two-and-a-half minutes later to restore the four-goal cushion that stayed until the final buzzer.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Japan, Ukraine win openers

OQ Gr. J: Croatia-Japan 0-3, Ukraine-Romania 3-0

Japan's Hiroki Ueno (right) and Croatia's Borna Silovic battle for the puck.

 

Japan and Ukraine posted comprehensive 3-0 victories on the first day of play in the Men's Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 Group J on Thursday night at the Tsukisamu Arena in Sapporo. The hosts beat Croatia in the evening, while Ukraine bested Romania in the afternoon.

Croatia vs. Japan 0-3 (0-0, 0-1, 0-2)

Yuto Osawa's two goals powered Japan to the win in a game that was close until late in the second period. Despite a huge difference in shots on goal (43 for Japan, 8 for Croatia), the Croats hung in to make it a close contest for most of the night.

The opening period was a scoreless affair in which Japan dominated possession of the puck. Croatia had few chances on offence as it spent much of the period defending.

Croatia faced multiple challenges on this night, as in addition to playing the tournament hosts, they did not arrive in the city until hours before the match due to inclement weather.

Yuto Osawa put Japan up 1-0 with 5:10 remaining the in the second with a shot from the edge of the crease. A penalty had been called, but as play continued, Croatia seemed to lose concentration momentarily and Japan capitalized. Ryo Hashiba assisted on the goal.

There was an air of inevitability about Japan's first goal, as Croatia goalie Mate Tomljenovic had made several fine saves before finally allowing Osawa's score.

Croatia seemed to find their footing in the third, when the played well for the first 10 minutes but could not come up with the equalizer.

Osawa's second goal came from the slot with 4:21 left in the third with an assist by Kohei Mitamura.

Go Tanaka clinched the triumph for Japan with a goal from the slot just 20 seconds later.

Japan killed off five power plays in the win.

Japan coach Greg Thomson was relieved after the victory.

“This was a very important game today,” Thomson said. “We knew the situation with Croatia having to stay in Tokyo last night and travel today. They didn't quit.”

Thomson was impressed by the efforts of the Croats.

“They made the first period tough for us,” Thomson stated. “We had a lot of scoring chances in the second but only got one goal. Croatia made the third period tough but we got two more goals. Our goal was to use our speed and create scoring chances.”

Osawa said he worked well with his teammates during the victory.

“I'm very happy. I was surprised with the two goals,” commented Osawa. “It was hard work. I had good communication with my linemates.”

Japan goalie Yutaka Fukufuji didn't see much action, but was content with the scoreline.

“It was a tough game, but a shutout is a good result,” Fukufuji said. “We were able to dominate for 60 minutes.”

Croatia coach Danijel Kolombo believes his team accomplished what it set out to.

“After such a long trip to get here, we wanted to make a tough game for Japan and we did,” noted Kolombo. “We knew the Japanese were better skaters. We came with an amateur team but showed we could still compete.”

Tomljenovic praised his team's result under the circumstances.

“This is an amazing game for us,” Tomljenovic said. “We came only two hours before the game and played great. We didn't want to get embarrassed. We have 12 players playing in the national team for the first time.”

The winner of this tournament will advance to the Final Olympic Qualification round that will be played 1-4 September 2016 in three groups.

The Japan men have participated at Olympics eight times, most recently on home ice in Nagano 1998.

Ukraine vs. Romania 3-0 (0-0, 2-0, 1-0)

Second-period goals by Vladyslav Luhovy and Andri Mikhnov sparked Ukraine to a 3-0 victory over Romania. Ukraine dominated the contest with their power and defence, but Romania put up a valiant fight to keep it tight most of the way. Ukraine outshot Romania 48-27 in the win.

The first period was scoreless despite both teams having several power-play opportunities. Ukraine outshot Romania 12-3. Goalies Eduard Zakharchenko (Ukraine) and Attila Adorjan (Romania) each came up with fine saves to maintain the stalemate.

Ukraine began to take the initiative in the second period and broke the deadlock on Luhovy's goal with 10:28 left in the period on a shot from point-blank range. Sergi Kuzmik was credited with an assist on the play.

Adorjan stopped a penalty shot by Viktor Zakharov with 9:51 left after a tripping penalty on Istvan Nagy to keep it 1-0. Ukraine, ranked 21st in the world, kept heavy pressure on Adorjan throughout the second.

Ukraine tallied again when Mikhnov scored from close in with 1:41 remaining. Artem Bondaryev got the assist.

Romania, ranked 28th, was on the defensive side for the majority of the second period and had few chances to score.

Artem Gnidenko put the game away for Ukraine with a shot from the point with 5:25 left in the third.

Ukraine coach Olexander Savytski was satisfied with the victory;

“A win is a win. Some moments we should have been better,” stated Savytski. “Our goalie played well. There were a few moments when he should have played better. Romania kept the game close.”

Zakharchenko, who played well in the crease, credited his players for the shutout win.

“It is thanks to my teammates that they did not score,” Zakharchenko commented. “My team blocked a lot of shots and Romania did not have long possessions because of our defence.”

Romania coach Kjell Lindqvist was philosophical after the defeat.

“Ukraine is a good hockey team. They are big and heavy,” stated Lindqvist. “We had chances. I'm satisfied because we tried hard. If we could have scored in the third it might have been different.”

Lindqvist cited the play of Adorjan as a positive.

“Our goalie played solid. He is only 20 years old,” noted Lindqvist. “He stopped the penalty shot and many others.”

Romania forward Zsolt Molnar knew his team would be in for a challenge this day.

“I thought it would be hard,” said Molnar. “Ukraine played good. We tried our best and fought until the end.”

Ukraine played at the Olympics in 2002 but hasn't qualified for a top-level event since 2007.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

3rd PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Tournament 3

Sapporo (JPN) - 11.02.2016 - 14.02.2016

 

Participating Nations:

• Croatia
• Japan
• Romania
• Ukraine

 

 

Round-Robin

4 Nations, Round-Robin Tournament, 1st Nation will Qualify to the 2nd Olympic Preliminary Quailfication Round

 

Ukraine  3 - 0  Romania

(Score by Period: 0-0, 2-0, 1-0)

11th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

Croatia  0 - 3  Japan        

(Score by Period: 0-0, 0-1, 0-2)

11th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

Ukraine  6 - 0  Croatia    

(Score by Period: 3-0, 1-0, 2-0)

13th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

Japan  7 - 0  Romania  

(Score by Period: 0-0, 5-0, 2-0)

13th February 2016, h. 18:00 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

Romania  1 - 4  Croatia        

(Score by Period: 0-1, 1-2, 0-1)

14th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

Japan  2 - 1  Ukraine    

(Score by Period: 0-0, 0-0, 2-1)

14th February 2016, h. 18:00 (GMT +9), Tsukisamu Arena, Sapporo

 

 

Round-Robin Standing

[hckošice 13,626]

3rd PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Tournament 2

Budapest (HUN) - 11.02.2016 - 14.02.2016

 

Participating Nations:

• Estonia
• Hungary
• Lithuania
• Poland

 

 

Round-Robin

4 Nations, Round-Robin Tournament, 1st Nation will Qualify to the 2nd Olympic Preliminary Quailfication Round

 

Poland  6 - 2  Estonia

(Score by Period: 3-0, 2-1, 1-1)

11th February 2016, h. 16:00 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

Lithuania  0 - 4  Hungary        

(Score by Period: 0-1, 0-1, 0-2)

11th February 2016, h. 19:30 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

Poland  9 - 1  Lithuania    

(Score by Period: 2-0, 5-0, 2-1)

12th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

Hungary  7 - 1  Estonia  

(Score by Period: 2-0, 2-1, 3-0)

12th February 2016, h. 18:00 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

Estonia  4 - 1  Lithuania        

(Score by Period: 3-1, 0-0, 1-0)

14th February 2016, h. 14:30 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

Hungary  0 - 1 (GWS)   Poland    

(Score by Period: 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, OT: 0-0, GWS: 0-1)

14th February 2016, h. 18:00 (GMT +1), Laszlo Papp Budapest Sport arena, Budapest

 

 

Round-Robin Standing

RANK	NATION	GAME	WINS	W(OT)	L(OT)	LOSE	SCORE	POINTS
1	Poland	3	2	1	0	0	16:3	8
2	Hungary	3	2	0	1	0	11:2	7
3	Estonia	3	1	0	0	2	7:14	3
4	Lithuania	3	0	0	0	3	2:17	0

 

 

 

Following Nation Have Qualified to Final Olympic Qualifying Round

• Poland

[hckošice 13,626]

3rd PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Tournament 1

Cortina d´Ampezzo (ITA) - 11.02.2016 - 14.02.2016

 

Participating Nations:

• Italy
• Great Britain
• Netherlands
• Serbia

 

 

Round-Robin

4 Nations, Round-Robin Tournament, 1st Nation will Qualify to the 2nd Olympic Preliminary Quailfication Round

 

Great Britain  6 - 5  Netherlands

(Score by Period: 2-1, 2-2, 2-2)

11th February 2016, h. 17:00 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

Italy  8 - 0  Serbia      

(Score by Period: 3-0, 3-0, 2-0)

11th February 2016, h. 20:45 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

Great Britain  6 - 2  Serbia    

(Score by Period: 2-1, 2-1, 2-0)

13th February 2016, h. 17:00 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

Netherlands  2 - 4  Italy  

(Score by Period: 1-2, 1-1, 0-1)

13th February 2016, h. 20:45 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

Serbia  3 - 7  Netherlands        

(Score by Period: 0-2, 2-2, 1-3)

14th February 2016, h. 17:00 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

Italy  6 - 2  Great Britain    

(Score by Period: 3-0, 1-1, 2-1)

14th February 2016, h. 20:45 (GMT +1), Stadio Olimpico, Cortina d´Ampezzo

 

 

Round-Robin Standing

RANK	NATION	GAME	WINS	W(OT)	L(OT)	LOSE	SCORE	POINTS
1	Italy	3	3	0	0	0	18:4	9
2	Great Britain	3	2	0	0	1	14:13	6
3	Netherlands	3	1	0	0	2	14:13	3
4	Serbia	3	0	0	0	3	5:21	0

 

 

 

Following Nation Have Qualified to Final Olympic Qualifying Round

• Italy

[hckošice 13,626]

White Eagles fly on

OQ Gr. L: Serbia advances after battle with Spain

Reason to celebrate: After edging host Spain, Serbia advances to the next round and will play in Italy

 

Serbia broke home hearts with a dramatic 5-3 victory in the decisive game in the Olympic Qualification Group L, topping the group and booking a trip to Italy in February for the next stop on the road to PyeongChang 2018.

Serbia vs. Spain 5-3 (0-2, 2-0, 3-1)

A dramatic third period saw both sides experience joy and despair before Serbia edged a 5-3 verdict on captain Marko Milovanovic’s fourth goal of the competition.

He snapped a 3-3 tie with 2:34 left in regulation time as the game was getting more and more stretched. With chances flowing at both ends Milovanovic was the man to capitalize when he fired home a Marko Brkusanin pass for what proved to be the game winner. Brkusanin himself then wrapped it up with an empty net goal, finally ending Spain’s brave resistance and sparking wild celebrations on the Serbian bench.

“This is a great result for Serbian hockey,” said coach Nikola Bera. “It’s the first time in our history that we’ve come through an Olympic Qualification group, and we’ve done it without some of our best players.”

But Bera admitted there had been some nervous moments, especially in 32 crazy seconds when Serbia thought they’d all but won it only for Spain to equalize. The drama started when a Serbian goal was ruled out for offside at 9:55 of the third period. At 10:27 Spain took full advantage of that reprieve as a shot thundered in from the point and Alejandro Pedraz reacted fastest to squeeze the puck home.

Earlier, though, Spain made a dream start. First-period pressure led to a power-play goal at 11:51. Serbia cleared its zone but goalie Ander Alcaine quickly fired the puck down the ice, releasing Guillermo Bertan to score high on the glove side.

The home crowd was celebrating once again at 17:48 when Pat Fuentes made it 2-0. Ignacio Solorzano saw his shot beaten away but the goalie was powerless to stop Fuentes’ shot creeping inside the top corner from a tight angle.

“I thought we started the game really well, we got the pace that we wanted and now there’s a lot of disappointment,” said Spain’s coach Luciano Basile.

That disappointment began in the second session, which belonged to Serbia, and to Dimitrje Filipovic in particular. The forward scored twice to tie the game as Alcaine found himself busy throughout the session. Filipovic got his first at 7:29 of the second period, finding the top-right corner off Ugljesa Novakovic’s pass to put his team back in the game. Spain had a big chance to respond almost immediately, but Rankovic thwarted Javier Garcia-Arias down low by the post. Alcaine then showed his class with a fine glove save to deny Srdjan Ristic.

But there was no denying when Filipovic was sent through on the net by Nemanja Vucurevic and flashed a wrist shot high on the stick side to level the scores.

That had the game poised for a dramatic finale, and Serbia gained the edge at 4:56 of the third when Pavel Popravka put his country up for the first time on the night, assisted by the impressive Filipovic.

“Tonight was a real grand final,” Serbian coach Bera added. “Spain has a really good team, we know each other well and we play often in World Championship play. But I think this time Serbia really was better and deserved the win.”

The teams will meet again in April, when the Division II Group A comes to Jaca, in Northern Spain. And for Basile that’s a chance to build on what was achieved here.

“I think we’ve found an identity here,” he said. “We played seven of the nine periods with the kind of energy that we wanted. We’re disappointed because we had a good week at work, two good games and a fantastic first period tonight but we just couldn’t go through.”

China vs. Iceland 3-11 (0-7, 1-2, 2-2)

Iceland ended its tournament on a high note with a convincing win over China. Two narrow defeats in the opening games left the Nordic nation with no prospect of qualifying but Magnus Blarand’s team was not about to give China an easy ride. The first period saw the Chinese run into serious penalty trouble: two of Iceland’s seven goals came from 5-on-3 power plays, with a third coming from a one-man advantage.

Robin Hedstrom led Iceland’s scoring with five goals to finish as the weekend’s leading goalscorer, and there were two each for Ingthor Arnason and Robert Palsson. Petur Maark and Andri Helgason also scored for Iceland; Jiachang Bao, Longtan Liu and a short-handed goal from Tianyu Hu completed China’s most successful game on offence in the competition.
 

[hckošice 13,626]

Budapest awaits Estonia

OQ Gr. K: Progress sealed as hosts romp Mexico

The Estonian players celebrate. After winning all games on home ice in Tallinn, they will advance to the next round of Olympic Qualification.

 

Estonia's goal-barrage continued as Mexico was beaten 13-3 to win Group K and keep Olympic dreams alive. The Baltic nation will now be facing a much sterner test in the next round of Olympic Qualification where Hungary, Poland and Lithuania await in Budapest, Hungary, 11-14 February 2016. In today's other game Israel recorded its first win thanks to a gutsy performance as Bulgaria was beaten 5-2.

Estonia vs. Mexico 13-3 (3-1, 3-2, 7-0)

Despite taking a shock lead and a valiant performance by Mexico, it was Estonia who coasted to a comfortable win hitting double-digits for the third successive game in the Sunday evening showdown.

In front of a crowd of 1,150 at Tondiraba Ice Hall Robert Rooba (3+2) and defenceman Artjom Minin (2+3) led the the winning side in points, while Mexico showed great efficiency scoring three goals in their first five shots with 20-year-old birthday boy Gustavo Martinez notching 1+1.

With the odds heavily stacked against their favour, the tactics were clear for Mexico from the outset.

"We tried to be really disciplined in defensive zone and not to be as aggressive as we had been in our previous two games while also not giving up too much space in the middle of the ice. I think it worked out for about two periods," said Mexico head coach Diego de la Garma.

Setting out their stall early to concentrate on their defensive duties, Mexico's diminutive goalie Alfonso de Alba had to break sweat from the outset as Estonia came out full throttle.

But instead of Estonia's sustained pressure materialising in early goals, it was instead Mexico who silenced the crowd with an opening shorthanded first strike.

Enrique Arturo Samperio was serving time in the penalty box for a hooking offence when Estonia went all on attack and temporarily forgot about defensive duties as Carlos Gomez drove up the puck to feed Gustavo Martinez, who surprised Estonia's Roman Shumikhin with a fine finish to put the Mexicans in front at 10:29.

The lead was shortlived as Aleksandr Kuznetsov picked out Artur Fedoruk to tie the game at 12:22 and 33 seconds later Estonia was in front. Captain Lauri Lahesalu fed Jan Lukats, who unleashed a wrister from the right faceoff circle that flew high past de Alba. Lahesalu had a hand in Estonia's third as he found Kuznetsov flying down the right boards with pace and Alexander Ovechkin's good friend since their junior hockey days hit a threading cross-ice pass to the blade of Mihkel Vorang, who reacted quicker than Mexico's Guillermo Diaz to make it 3-1 with just over five minutes to go of the first frame.

Robert Rooba boomed home a shot in the slot while on power play to stretch Estonia's lead to 4-1 at 2:24 of the second period. The same Rooba found the net once against just over eight minutes into the middle frame thanks to fine work by Artjom Gornostajev, who set up the assistant captain in front of de Alba's net for Estonia's fifth marker.

While Mexico replied at 10:39 when Bryano Arroyo converted fine work by Carlos Gomez for their second goal, Estonia hit back 1:25 later with Rooba completing his hat trick to stretch Estonia's lead to 6-2.

While Estonia stamped their authority more into the game and parked long spells in Mexico's defensive zone in a period where the hosts won the shots 22-2, it was instead Mexico that 15 seconds before the buzzer added a bit of nerve into the game with a finely taken goal starting from Luis David Gonzalez on the blue line, feeding captain Fernando Ugarte at the right faceoff circle, who picked out Roberto Chabat clean in slot and sent the puck low past Shumikhin for 6-3.

Estonia eventually got out of sight when Jaanus Sorokin scored Estonia's seventh goal at 3:09 of the third period and starting with Robert Arrak's 8-3 goal at 8:15 Mexico was to concede five unanswered goals in the space of 3:20 with Gornostajev, Minin, Sorokin and Risto Teppan also finding the net. The final score finished 13-3 with Minin closing the scoring for Estonia with 3:56 to go.

"We played with three lines, got a guy injured while Estonia played with four full lines, so in the end there was a huge difference in energy as we started to lose some easy goals and in the end they are way, way better than us," said Mexico coach de la Garma, who despite the defeat was far from dejected when looking ahead for the upcoming World Championship events at both senior and U20 level play on home ice in Mexico City.

"I think it looks pretty good. We had a lot of young players here and one of our top scorers here in Tallinn is a U18 player, Jorge Perez. There were a lot of surprises in terms of performances that we were not expecting especially not in a game like against Estonia, so we are going to have very good teams in both World Championships," said de la Garma.

"When the game was close, we could had been negative, but we were always very positive," said Estonia's defenceman Michael Mahkwa Auksi of today's win while also looking back at being back on the national team set-up during this week.

"The practices we've had were quite intense. Focusing on what we have to do, working on offensive schemes and respecting the game, each other and the other teams. I thought we did a great job with that. It is a tough tournament to play, because you cannot stop playing just because there is a high score as it is preparation for what is to come now in February," he said.

Group H of the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 is played in Budapest, Hungary between 11-14 February 2016 with Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia taking part. The winner will progress to the Final Olympic Qualification played 1-4 September 2016.

Bulgaria vs. Israel 2-5 (1-0, 0-1, 1-4)

Israel bounced back from their two losses in the Olympic Qualification by winning a tight final game 5-2. Despite being outshot 30-24, 19-year-old Ilya Spektor became the hero of the day for Israel as he sealed his hat trick and the win thanks to an empty netter with 1:17 to go. Maxim Gokhberg in the Israeli net made 28 saves.

Israel's head coach Derek Eisler had ahead of this match called on his team to redeem themselves from a 10-5 defeat to Bulgaria at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in South Africa last spring.

Captain Martin Boyadjiev had put Bulgaria in front at 17:42 as he picked up the puck on the right during an ineffective Israeli power play and skated past a passive rearguard to finish high past Gokhberg for the only goal of the first period.

Having been outshot 9-4 in the first period, Israel came out with renewed energy in the second frame after a few well-chosen words during the intermission by head coach Eisler. After managing to ride out an initial storm on box play it was the individual skill of captain Spektor that got them back into the game as he picked up the puck at centre ice and skated through the cumbersome Bulgarian back line and slotted the puck past Bulgaria's netminder Dimitar Dimitrov for Israel's equalizer and the sole goal of the period.

Once the third frame was underway Rosen Hristov's low shot at 5:09 got Bulgaria back in front but Israel was not to give up that easily on this afternoon and it was Spektor, who once again tied the game as he skated clear at 10:24 with a goal that invigorated the Israeli team.

With the game very much in balance, Bulgaria piled the pressure and with Israel's Nissim Botbol sitting out two minutes for holding offence, Georgi Iskrenov created havoc but couldn't get the puck behind Gokhberg and Bulgaria's spurned chances proved costly as on an Israeli breakaway Raiter found Roey Aharonovich, who found the net as Israel had turned the game at 15:07 to go 3-2 in front.

Bulgaria, who for the first time this tournament played the entire game with one goalie, pulled Dimitrov with 2:17 to go, but despite piling up pressure, it was Israel's Aharonovich, who got hold of a loose puck and found Spektor, who thanks to an empty netter scored his third of the game before further misery was added to Bulgaria's afternoon when Israeli prospect Ori Kafri netted the final goal with 50 seconds to go.

"Both teams were pretty equal, but in the end they wanted it more," said Bulgaria's Iskrenov. "We played alright for a period or so, then got down in the second, but I thought it could have been anyone's game, but unfortunately I could not buy a goal today."

Meanwhile in the winning camp, Eisler, now in his second year working with Israel's senior team and with a previous experience of working with Israel's junior set-up sees the victory as a sign of progress as he is set to continue down the road of transition in Israeli hockey.

"Most of the players we brought along have been kids who I've started with in the U18. It's been a three-year process and we are trying to build a stepping stone for the players, and you can see a bit more hockey maturity in some of the players, but we need to keep building on that," said Eisler.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Set for a showdown

OQ Gr. L: Spain faces Serbia for top spot

The Serbian players celebrate a goal. After two wins they will battle for first place with host Spain on Sunday

 

Spain overcame a spirited Iceland team to make it two wins out of two and set up a winner-takes-all clash against Serbia on Sunday evening. Earlier, Serbia opened up the second day of Olympic Qualification competition with a comfortable win over China.

Spain vs. Iceland 5-3 (2-1, 2-1, 1-1)

The host nation made it two wins in a row in front of another passionate crowd – but after Friday’s romp against China this was a hard-fought battle against Iceland. Defenceman Jorge Vea acknowledged that he had been in a tough battle of the Division IIA rivals: “We had to fight for everything and it was a really great win for us. Iceland has a good team and they showed that on the ice.”

The first period was fast and frantic. Both teams were determined to play on offence and shared 30 shots on goal as they traded blows. Iceland struck first, profiting from Spain’s all-out attack philosophy. Defenceman Birkir Arnason almost coughed up the puck in his own zone but as the Spanish swooped out of position he recovered to launch a counter-attack that ended with Johann Leifsson silencing a raucous home crowd of 850 fans with a low shot past Ander Alcaine.

Spain redoubled its attacking efforts with Ignacio Solorzano and Javier Garcia-Arias going close to tying the scores before Pablo Munoz made it 1-1 at 10:27. The play went round the back of the net where Gaston Gonzales popped out a pass for Munoz to fire in his second marker of the competition. Iceland still threatened with Alcaine pulling off a double save to deny Robin Hedstrom and Emil Alengaard before Spain hit the front. Alfonso Garcia brought the crowd to its feet with a slapper from the point that deceived Snorri Sigurbergsson as it flew through traffic.

Iceland tied it up early in the second with Spain’s defence slow to react as Falur Gudnason lined up his shot but a turnover in centre ice soon presented the home team with the chance to regain the lead. Alejandro Pedraz was sent one-on-one with Sigurbergsson and won his duel. At the other end Ulfar Andresson also had a golden chance when he was awarded a penalty shot at 14:14 of the second period. However, Alcaine advanced to meet the Icelander and got his body behind the shot. Two minutes later Spain punished that miss and opened up a two-goal lead through Pol Gonzalez. He wrapped up a neat three-man passing move with a shot right under the bar.

The home team’s hopes of calmly closing out the game in the final stanza were hampered when Leifsson got his second of the game at 8:02. He produced a clinical finish after great work on the left boards from Ingthor Arnason to put the game back in the balance. Nerves were jangling louder still when Alcaine was forced into a brave stop at the feet of Olafur Bjornsson a few moments later but when the Icelanders ran into penalty trouble the game turned decisively. Ignacio Solorzano thumped a shot over the bar and it bounced back off the boards for Gaston Gonzalez to make it 5-3.

For many of Spain’s young players, tomorrow’s showdown is the biggest game of their careers, but Vea insists it will be business as usual despite the occasion. “We’ve not seen much of Serbia’s games here but I’m sure it will be another tough game like tonight,” he said. “We’ll just practise the same as usual and do what we usually do to prepare and go and play our game.”

Serbia vs. China 5-1 (4-0, 1-1, 0-0)

Serbia wasted little time in taking control of its game against China. Captain Marko Milovanovic opened the scoring 4:21 into the game with a close-range finish off a Nemanja Jankovic pass for his third goal of the competition. Jankovic was among the assists on Serbia’s second, drilled in from the point by defenceman Aleksa Lukovic at 11:25 before Pavel Popravka put a fine wrist shot upstairs from the deep slot as the Chinese defence was parted by Serbia’s passing game.

Perhaps the pick of the goals came right on the hooter as the Serbs’ third line combined with a nice tic-tac-toe move to give Nenad Rakovic his first goal in the tournament. China, once again, found it hard to get its offence rolling but might have got on the board late in the first period when Tianyi Guan made an interception that put him clean through on Arsenije Rankovic. However, the defenceman fired straight into the goalie’s pads.

But after another slow start China produced some of its best hockey of the competition so far as Benyu Wang’s team held Serbia to 1-1 over the period. Mingxi Yang got the first Chinese goal at 4:06 of the second period with a fine solo run as the team began to show more attacking endeavour. Serbia struck back immediately, Popravka getting his second of the game, but the Chinese offence began to test Rankovic more seriously: nine shots on goal in the session were just two shy of the team’s whole game tally against Spain the previous evening. That pattern continued into the scoreless third period, leaving Serbian captain Milovanovic warning that tomorrow’s showdown with Spain would demand total concentration for the full 60 minutes.

“We started the game well but we’re a bit disappointed with the way we played in the second and third period,” he said. “It’s not a good way to finish a game and go forward to the next. If we want to beat Spain we will have to play better.”

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Goals galore in Tallinn

OQ Gr. K: Estonia v Mexico for next round

The Estonian players celebrate one of the 26 goals against Bulgaria

 

Mexico and Estonia continued their winning streaks during the second day of Olympic qualification in Group K. Prolific powerplay was the key as Mexico blanked Israel 5-0 while Estonia steamed ahead to beat Bulgaria 26-0 and falling just short of their all-time scoring record. With a couple of wins each, Mexico and Estonia now go head-to-head in a Sunday night showdown where the winner progress to the next round in February.

Mexico vs. Israel 5-0 (2-0, 1-0, 2-0)

Penalty calls proved costly for Israel as Mexico got their power play in tune during a solid second consecutive win. Roberto Chabat led the way with three goals in one-man advantage for the Latin Americans while netminder Alfonso de Alba recorded a shutout.

Bundling in the first goal of the game on a power play from close range saw Chabat bring the Mexicans in front after 8:43 after fine work by Brian Arroyo from the left side. A well-worked move at 16:58 once again proved to be a productive way for finding the net. Israel's captain Ilya Spektor sat out a tripping call when Fernando Ugarte moved the puck to Arroyo, who once again picked out Chabat in front of the net as Mexico doubled their lead.

When Christian Smithers scored Mexico's third at 4:36 of the second period it looked like the game would be well and truly over, but a dogged Israel worked itself more into the game led by Spektor and lively Roey Aharonovich, who both came close for Israel as they were denied by fine goaltending from Mexico's Alfonso de Alba. With Mexico already serving a minor penalty for too many players on the ice, Israel got their golden opportunity with a 5-on-3 after Jorge Perez's interference call for Mexico at 15:03. Israel coach Derek Eisler took a time-out to give his players a breather and requesting more traffic, but Mexico's able netminder Alfonso de Alba kept out any Israeli attempts on goal.

Any chance for an Israeli fightback faced an even steeper uphill task when at 10:25 of the third period Chabat scored his third of the afternoon. Maxim Gokhberg in the Israeli net can take a lot of credit for his performance before Mexico's captain Ugarte's solo effort at 16:25 closed the scoring in a 5-0 win, which pleased Mexico head coach Diego de La Garma.

"We are content with the victory, but we should have scored way more goals. Their goalie was pretty good, but we managed to get an okay win," he said as his young team is getting ready for the decider against Estonia, which proves to be of another calibre.

"It's going to a tough one as Estonia is way better than any of the other teams in this group. Their speed, experience and shooting ability are really good. But if we play a very solid defensive game we might have a chance to be able to compete with them, we'll see," said de La Garma.

As for Israel, despite two straight defeats, Derek Eisler, in second season at the helm of the senior national team found signs of promise compared to the opening day loss against Estonia.

"Compared to Estonia, Mexico is a little bit more like we are, but they scored a lot more on power play. They scored early and if we scored on ours in the second period, it could have been pretty even, but we just didn't score," said Eisler, whose team is now up against fellow winless Bulgaria in their final day, where Israel will be aiming to redeem themselves from their last meeting at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in South Africa last spring.

"I would like to see us rebound from the 10-5 loss we had against Bulgaria in South Africa and I think that should be good motivation for us going into it," he said.

Estonia vs. Bulgaria 26-0 (10-0, 8-0, 8-0)

Estonia recorded their second emphatic scoreline in a blowout win, which in the end turned into a battle for the young Estonian team to enter the history books.

When Robert Arrak scored his fifth of the night and Estonia's 25 unanswered goal, the scoreboard showed 5:17 to go of the game. To beat a 27-1 win against South Africa from 16 March 1994 was in the minds of many of the Estonian players as they relentlessly surged forward at the end of their second match against Bulgaria.

With 102-9 in shots in Estonia's favour, and Robert Rooba leading the scoring with 5+6, closely followed by his line-mate Vassili Titarenko on 5+4, credit must be given to Bulgaria's netminder Nikola Nikolov, who played the final 30:36 of the game and where his 47 saves in the end denied Estonia's record-chasing pack.

Estonia came out of the game in full throttle and Robert Rooba missed a clear-cut chance eight seconds straight after face-off. Just like in their opening game last night, Alexandr Kuznetsov set the tone for Estonia, scoring their first goal, this time after 1:16 when Mihkel Vorang picked him out in front of the net. Captain Lauri Lahesalu hit the inside of the post soon after from the blueline, before Rooba sailed through the Bulgarian defence with an unassisted effort at 3:14 for Estonia's second.

The first line out was out in full force once again when Estonia found the net for their third goal. Rooba won a face-off at the right before Artjom Gornostajev picked out Titarenko unmarked in the slot. 24 seconds later with the same line still out on the ice, Mikhel Sinikas, the tallest player of the tournament at 199 cm, saw his blueline effort sail in for a 4-0. Two Finnish-based players combined for Estonia's fifth when Silver Kerna picked out Espoo Blues prospect Arrak, who finished high at 8.57. A Michael Mahkwa Auksi blueliner found its way behind Dimitar Dimitrov, who started in Bulgaria's net at 10:43 and before the first frame was over, Arrak had scored a hat-trick and Estonia scored ten unanswered goals.

"These guys are great hockey players, so there is not really that much you can do," said Bulgaria's Georgi Iskrenov following their 26-0 loss. "We have a lot of young players, but they don't get a lot of opportunities in Bulgaria, but they have hockey sense and we try to focus on that, to get them experience and not focus too much on what the score will be," he said as Bulgaria aims to bounce back in their final game against Israel.

"I don't think it's going to be an easy game at all," said Iskrenov. "Estonia kept them to a lower score than against us, and I hope we are going to get a win out of that one."

For the Estonians they now need to stay fully focused on what lies ahead for them when only a win in their final game versus Mexico will be good enough.

"It seems like they will be our toughest opponent, but we just need to continue to play like we done in the first two games, not lower our level of play and just keep on going," said netminder Villem-Henrik Koitmaa

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Spain’s super start

OQ Gr. L: Hosts net ten, SO win for Serbia

 

Nemanja Jankovic netted the shoot-out winner for Serbia to end a tight game against Iceland.

 

Day 1 of Olympic Qualification Group L produced a pulsating battle between Iceland and Serbia before Spain delighted the home crowd with a crushing win over China.

Spain – China 10-1 (2-0, 6-1, 2-0)

Spain got off to the perfect start, delighting the home crowd with two goals in the space of a minute early in the first period.

Head coach Luciano Basile had promised a team full of enthusiasm and that was evident from the start as Spain set a high tempo. China had already killed a penalty before taking the lead on 5:27 when Ignacio Solorzano fired low into the unguarded corner of Zhiwei Liu’s net.

And the celebrations had barely stopped when Adrian Ubieto unleashed an absolute thunderbolt from the blue line to bring Spanish fans to their feet once again.

Spain was pressing hard, giving China no time to settle into its game, as Alejandro Carbonell acknowledged after the game.

“We knew China skates fast but we played a really good game, we got to them even faster and that’s how we got the result,” the forward said. “We did what the coach told us, we played very well and when we got the puck to the net we scored many goals.”

China, reflecting the Russian influence on its hockey, tried to play its way into contention with the kind of neat passing that Spanish sports fans might recognise as tiki-taka. Some neat interplay between Xijun Cui and Cheng Zhang sent the latter in on the home net. But goalie Ander Alcaine has a bit of a reputation in these parts and he responded to the danger with a fine sprawling save.

By the end of the second period the ‘Ole’s were heard for the first time – and small wonder as Spain stretched its lead to 8-1. Jordy Angles, one of just two players based outside of Spain, scored from close range at the second attempt and within a minute Guillermo Bertan shot from the left-hand boards and captain Pablo Puyuelo put away the rebound. A power play goal in the 29th minute saw Carbonell add to his two assists in the opening stanza with a neat finish high on the backhand to make it 5-0.

China got on the board at last a minute later when Tianziang Xia finished off a nice passing move but there was no stopping the home team. Pablo Munoz made it six, prompting China to replace starting goalie Liu with Shengrong Xia. The goals kept flowing: defenseman Alejandro Vea scored the seventh from the point and Solorzano got his second of the night to make it eight as a party atmosphere rolled around the arena.

The third period saw Spain continue to press but Xia provided a bit more resistance in goal. Juan Munoz and Patricio Fuentes added two further goals to bring up double figures and crown a powerful performance that gives the team great confidence going into Saturday’s game against Iceland.

Iceland 4 Serbia 5 (SO) (2-2, 0-1, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)

Serbia and Iceland got the Spanish crowd warmed up in Valdemoro with a high-scoring game that eventually went to the Balkan nation thanks to Nemanja Jankovic’s shoot-out winner.

The teams shared eight goals in regulation, with Iceland coming from behind four times in an absorbing encounter.

And Serbia’s experienced forward Pavel Popravka admitted that the team had ridden its luck after facing 52 shots from an opponent that was keen to test goalie Arsenije Rankovic at every opportunity.

“It’s always hard to say much about the first game,” Popravka said after the game. “It was interesting to get out and play at last. Maybe we had a bit of luck, but we got the result.”

Serbia struck first after just 90 seconds, turning over the puck on its own blue line before Ivan Glavonjic combined with Jankovic to present captain Marko Milovanovic with his first goal of the night. But Iceland hit back on the power play: a wayward shot from Bjorn Sigurdarson had Serbia scrambling behind the net and the puck dropped for Arnthor Bjarnason to tie it up in the eighth minute.

The teams traded two more quick-fire goals in the opening frame: Nemanja Vucurevic profited from a positional error in Iceland’s defence, but just 17 seconds later Ulfar Andresson forced home the rebound from Johan Leifsson’s shot.

A speculative effort from Serbia was the only marker in the second stanza. Dimitrije Filipovic’s shot seemed comfortable for Snorri Sigurbergsson but somehow squeezed through his pads to make it 3-2.

In the third period Iceland again tied the scores, this time with a well-executed penalty shot by Johann Leifsson after a slashing call against Marko Brkusanin. Milovanovic got his second of the night for the Serbs on the power play, but a short-handed strike from Olafur Bjornsson, swatting an airborne puck into the net, took the game into the extras.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Easy workout for Estonia

OQ Gr. K : Hosts and Mexico start with wins

The Estonian players sing the national anthem after crushing Israel 19-1 in their first Olympic Qualification game.

 

Estonia and Mexico rack up opening day victories at the 2015 Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round Group K held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

With the first round of games done and dusted at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Estonia's capital, Mexico got into gear as the game wore on vanquishing Bulgaria 8-2, while Estonia set the tone from the outset in their first game to run away with a lopsided 19-1 win against Israel.

Jet-lagged after their long haul across the Atlantic, the Mexicans started their first game against Bulgaria slow on pace, but thanks to the attacking prowess of Jorge Perez they got in front after 11:20. Refusing to give in against their higher ranked opponents, the Bulgarians battled back with Georgi Iskrenov equalizing 14 seconds into the second period. But as the game progressed, Mexico got more into their stride and soon the game started to tilt over in the Latin American team's favour.

Nikola Nikolov had replaced starting netminder Dimitar Dimitrov half-way through the middle match and the 22-year-old got off to an unlucky start conceding only 13 second after stepping out on the ice, as Carlo Tommasi's effort sneaked in at 30:27 to put the Mexicans back into the lead 2-1. The feisty Bulgarians once fought back to equalize thanks to a Kristian Semkov effort, but as Mexico turned up the heat they got their reward with two late goals at the end of the middle frame. Perez scored his second of the afternoon at 19:26 of the second period and with ten second to go Carlos Gomez gave Mexico a two-goal cushion.

Gomez’ scoring spree continued in the final frame as he netted two consecutive power-play goals for a hat-trick to stretch the lead to 6-2 and put the game beyond their Balkan opponents. Perez followed, by netting his third with 5:12 to go before Guillermo Diaz added further gloss to the scoreline with 15 seconds to score the final goal of a 8-2 win for Diego de la Garma's men.

While Mexico needed to work hard before the goals finally started to fly in, Estonia had no problem finding the net from the outset in their first game against an inexperienced Israel team.

Piling up the pressure, the home crowd of 850 got on their feet for the first time at 1:52 into the game as Alexandr Kuznetsov opened the scoring in what was to be a very long and gruesome evening for Israel.

Robert Rooba scored Estonia's unanswered sixth goal with 2:08 to go in the first frame in a game which in the end saw Estonia dominate in emphatic fashion, winning shots on goals with 87-9 and steam ahead to a 19-1 win on the scoreboard.

 

[hckošice 13,626]

2nd PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Tournament 2

Valdemoro (ESP) - 06.11.2015 - 08.11.2015

 

Participating Nations:

• China
• Iceland
• Serbia
• Spain

 

 

Round-Robin

4 Nations, Round-Robin Tournament, 1st Nation will Qualify to the 3rd Olympic Preliminary Quailfication Round

 

Iceland  4 - 5 (GWS)  Serbia

(Score by Period: 2-2, 0-1, 2-1, OT: 0-0, GWS: 0-1)

6th November 2015, h. 16:00 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

Spain  10 - 1  China      

(Score by Period: 2-0, 6-1, 2-0)

6th November 2015, h. 19:30 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

Serbia  5 - 1  China  

(Score by Period: 4-0, 1-1, 0-0)

7th November 2015, h. 16:00 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

Spain  5 - 3  Iceland

(Score by Period: 2-1, 2-1, 1-1)

7th November 2015, h. 19:30 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

China  3 - 11  Iceland      

(Score by Period: 0-7, 1-2, 2-2)

8th November 2015, h. 16:00 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

Serbia  5 - 3  Spain    

(Score by Period: 0-2, 2-0, 3-1)

8th November 2015, h. 20:00 (GMT +1), Francisco Fernandez Ochoa, Valdemoro

 

 

Round-Robin Standing

RANK	NATION	GAME	WINS	W(OT)	L(OT)	LOSE	SCORE	POINTS
1	Serbia	3	2	1	0	0	15:8	8
2	Spain	3	2	0	0	1	18:9	6
3	Iceland	3	1	0	1	1	18:13	4
4	China	3	0	0	0	3	5:26	0

 

 

 

Following Nation Have Qualified to 3rd Preliminary Olympic Qualifying Round

• Serbia

[hckošice 13,626]

2nd PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Tournament 1

Tallinn (EST) - 05.11.2015 - 08.11.2015

 

Participating Nations:

• Bulgaria
• Estonia
• Israel
• Mexico

 

 

Round-Robin

4 Nations, Round-Robin Tournament, 1st Nation will Qualify to the 2nd Olympic Preliminary Quailfication Round

 

Mexico  8 - 2  Bulgaria

(Score by Period: 1-0, 3-2, 4-0)

5th November 2015, h. 15:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

Israel  1 - 19  Estonia      

(Score by Period: 0-6, 0-5, 1-8)

5th November 2015, h. 19:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

Mexico  5 - 0  Israel  

(Score by Period: 2-0, 1-0, 2-0)

6th November 2015, h. 15:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

Estonia  26 - 0  Bulgaria

(Score by Period: 10-0, 8-0, 8-0)

6th November 2015, h. 19:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

Bulgaria  2 - 5  Israel      

(Score by Period: 1-0, 0-1, 1-4)

8th November 2015, h. 13:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

Estonia  13 - 3  Mexico    

(Score by Period: 3-1, 3-2, 7-0)

8th November 2015, h. 17:00 (GMT +2), Tondiraba Icehall, Tallinn

 

 

Round-Robin Standing

RANK	NATION	GAME	WINS	W(OT)	L(OT)	LOSE	SCORE	POINTS
1	Estonia	3	3	0	0	0	58:4	9
2	Mexico	3	2	0	0	1	16:15	6
3	Israel	3	1	0	0	2	6:26	3
4	Bulgaria	3	0	0	0	3	4:39	0

 

 

 

Following Nation Have Qualified to 3rd Preliminary Olympic Qualifying Round

• Estonia

 

 

[hckošice 13,626]

Bulgaria advances

Captain Boyadjiev collects 8 points against Georgia

Bulgaria got its expected win against Georgia and gets a chance in the Olympic Qualification.

 

Bulgaria won decisively 9-1 (2-1, 3-0, 4-0) against Georgia in the Olympic Qualification Game played Saturday night in the Winter Palace to earn a spot in the next stage on the road to PyeongChang 2018.

Next month from 5 to 8 November, Bulgaria (39th in the IIHF World Ranking) will compete with host Estonia (29), Mexico (32) and Israel (33) in the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 1 in Tallinn. At the same time the other group in this round will be staged in Valdemoro with host Spain (31), Serbia (30), Iceland (35) and China (38). Each tournament winner then advances to the second preliminary round in February before the Final Olympic Qualification tournaments will be played next September.

Despite missing half of its top players Bulgaria was the clear favourite in the game against Georgia. One-and-a-half years ago the team was in full strength and scored 10 goals in the first period for a 19-1 win. This time around it wasn’t that easy, at least in the beginning, something that the opponents boldly predicted the day before the game.

Bulgaria opened the scoring on a great shorthanded breakaway by captain Martin Boyadjiev at 3:37. Vitali Dumbadze showed good puck-handling skills and with individual breakthrough four minutes later he tied the game. The hosts took the lead again at 12:24 after Boyadjiev had redirected a shot by Nikolay Bozhanov from the blue line – 2-1. Until the end of the period Dumbadze had two excellent scoring chances but found the crossbar on the first one and later couldn’t capitalize on a breakaway.

“We weren’t surprised by the Georgian team. It’s the same since we beat them in 2014. I don’t think the players underestimated the opponent either. In the beginning the players were nervous, which is normal when you don’t have many practices,” said Bulgaria head coach Kiril Hodulov after the game.

The second period started with two quick goals by his team. Boyadjiev again was flying on the ice, went behind the net and passed the puck to the oncoming 18-years-old Yanaki Gatchev, who beat Georgian goalie Andrei Ilienko for the 3-1 goal. The Russian-born netminder was out of position seconds later and Kristian Semkov extended the score to 4-1. This was the home team’s only goal of the game without the contribution of Boyadjiev, who finished with eight points (2+6). In the end Gatchev did a hat trick, Petar Mihov scored two goals and Bogdan Stefanov one.

“These two goals in the first two minutes of the second period calmed down the team and then everything went into places. Boyadjiev showed that he is a true captain and without doubt was the best player on the ice today. In the difficult moments he took charge of the play and his teammates. It’s no coincidence that this line made almost every goal. Gatchev keeps growing in presence and confidence on the ice,” Hodulov revealed his positive feelings.

His colleague on the opposite bench, the Russian Dmitri Afanasyev, was realistic about the difference in the level of the two teams: “Bulgaria has a good team that competes in the Division II and we are in Division III. I had to use just two lines and with the time these players had difficulties keeping the same level with the hosts. Every period became worse than the previous one. I just came to Georgia last month and we didn’t have time for practices – we had two in Batumi and two in Sofia. So there were some moments in which we were counting too much on individual skills instead of passes. But there are good young players in Georgia and with the project for three new arenas in the country we can only get better.”

In the same time the future for the Bulgarian team is quite unclear at the moment. “With this team we don’t have any chances in the next stage. We need our players who are competing abroad,” Hodulov said and hopes that the missing players will become available during the November event in Estonia.

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by hckosice

[hckošice 13,626]

1st PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATION ROUND

Sofia (BUL) - 10th October 2015

 

Qualification Match

2 Nations, 1 Direct Qualification Match, winning Nation will Qualify to the 2nd Preliminary Olympic Qualifying Round

 

Bulgaria  9 - 1  Georgia  

(Score by Period: 2-1, 3-0, 4-0)

10th October 2015, h. 19:30 (GMT +3), Winter Sports Palace, Sofia

 

 

Following Nation Have Qualified to 2nd Preliminary Olympic Qualifying Round

• Bulgaria

 

[hckošice 13,626]

IIHF MEN ' S FINAL RANKING 2015

as of 17th May 2015

 

RANK	NATION	POINTS
1	Canada	3690
2	Russia	3675
3	Sweden	3630
4	Finland	3575
5	United States	3540
6	Czech Republic	3495
7	Switzerland	3235
8	Slovakia	3160
9	Belarus	3075
10	Latvia	3015
11	Norway	2990
12	France	2930
13	Germany	2920
14	Slovenia	2795
15	Denmark	2775
16	Austria	2745
17	Kazakhstan	2680
18	Italy	2565
19	Hungary	2415
20	Japan	2345
21	Ukraine	2310
22	Poland	2275
23	South Korea	2230
24	Great Britain	2225
25	Netherlands	2065
26	Lithuania	2035
27	Croatia	1930
28	Romania	1895
29	Estonia	1870
30	Serbia	1645
31	Spain	1645
32	Mexico	1400
33	Israel	1375
34	Belgium	1280
35	Iceland	1270
36	Australia	1230
37	New Zealand	1045
38	China	1020
39	Bulgaria	890
40	South Africa	855
41	Turkey	815
42	North Korea	770
43	Luxembourg	700
44	United Arab Emirates	510
45	Georgia	495
46	Hong Kong	455
47	Bosnia and Herzegovina	200

 

 

• Black Bold - Nations Qualified for Winter Olympic Games 2018 Tournament
• Silver Bold Italic - Host Nations of Final Olympic Qualifying Round
• Blue Bold - Nations Qualified for Final Qualifying Round
• Gold Bold - Nations Qualified for 3rd Qualifying Round
• Purple Bold - Nations Qualified for 2nd Qualifying Round
• Green Bold - Nations Qualified for 1st Qualifying Round
• Red Bold - Nations that decided to not enter the Qualifications

Edited March 23, 2016 by hckosice