Ice Hockey IIHF World Championships 2017

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Gold at last

U20 Div. IIA: Lithuania defeats Japan, wins promotion

 

The moment the tournament win was theirs: The Lithuanian players celebrate after beating Japan in the deciding game of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division II Group A.

 

 

After three consecutive silver medals, Lithuania finally managed to claim gold at the IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division II Group A. Four unanswered goals including an Emilijus Krakauskas hat trick were key in a 6-4 victory over Japan on the final day of the tournament.

Both teams came into this game undefeated and had proven to be a class apart from the rest of the teams in the group out. In what was expected to be a close final game. Japan came out strong to stun the vocal Lithuanian crowd in the stands.

Japan took a commanding 2-0 lead halfway the first period by goals from Atsuki Ikeda and Jin Sawade. Lithuania head coach Jim Setters was pleased to see that his team was able to shake off the nerves and didn’t collapse. His men responded strongly and found a way back into the game when a Kostas Gusevas shot from the blue line deflected off a Japanese player into the net to cut the deficit to one at 12:03.

The goal sparked the Lithuanian team who were suddenly in full control, led by tournament top scorer Emilijus Krakauskas. The forward who plays for EHC Biel in the Swiss junior league continued to cause havoc in the opposition’s defensive zone and turned the game around with three unanswered goals.

First his wraparound at 12:38 tied the game 2-2 and early in the second period he added another pair. Coming in from the left wing, Krakauskas slotted home in the top right corner with the first shot of the second period. Two minutes later he did the same but then from the opposite side. It was Krakauskas’ 11th goal of the tournament.

The goal forced Japan coach Teruhiko Okita to execute a goalie change. Yuuki Mizuta was taken off and replace by Yujiro Isobe. The wake-up call worked as Japan stopped the Lithuanian dominance.

Daichi Saito scored the 3-4 goal and later on Japan had an excellent chance to equalize but Koki Ishikura saw his penalty shot saved by Artur Pavliukov with four minutes left to play in the second period.

Two more power-play goals including an empty netter in the final period sealed the deal for Lithuania. Daichi Igari’s tip-in goal with three seconds before the final buzzer did not change the smiles on the Lithuanian bench as they knew the gold was theirs.

The 6-4 victory means Lithuania will return to the Division I Group B for the first time since 2010. Japan, who were relegated to Division II Group A last year after withdrawing from the tournament in France, will remain playing in the Division II for another year.

In a game with the bronze medal at stake, three third-period goals ensured Romania won a roller coaster game against hosts Estonia, 6-5.

Croatia was relegated to Division II Group B after squandering a 2-0 lead against the Netherlands. The Dutch were pointless before this game but leapfrogged Croatia in the standings after a 3-2 victory and with that, sent the Croats down.

Emilijus Krakauskas finished the tournament as the tournament’s top scorer with 15 points from five games and was selected the Best Forward of the tournament by the directorate.

His team mate Artur Pavliukov was voted Best Goaltender whereas Japan’s Yusuke Kon claimed the best tournament defenceman award.

 

 

Results Thread
 

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Belarus to Buffalo

U20 Div I A: Wins Division IA ahead of host Germany

 

The Belarusians celebrate with the trophy and gold medals after winning the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division I Group A.

 

 

Timely goals, a clear cut mission, and a boatload of routine ultimately proved to be simply too much for the rest of the competition at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division I Group A this past week in Bremerhaven, Germany, as these proved to be the ingredients that allowed Belarus to slip by the competition on its way to promotion.

Ten seconds before the siren rang to complete Belarus‘ 4-0 victory over Austria, ensuring a move back up into the world‘s top U20 group, the arena was flooded with the sound of emphatic cheers and the clapping of sticks coming from Belarus‘ player bench.

Not long thereafter, all those sticks were scattered across the ice along with helmets and gloves as the team hurriedly piled itself on top of its goalie Alexander Osipkov, who had just pitched his first shutout of the event, beating Austria 4-0 to claim first place overall in the tournament.

“I am so happy right now,” shouted team captain Ilya Sushko. “I am happy for this magic end to the tournament. I’m happy for my teammates and the coaching staff. I’m so relieved, because no-one gave us this tournament as a present. All of the teams were good. Every game was difficult. We had to battle for everything. I am so proud of our accomplishments.”

The path to promotion was anything but easy for a program that just about looked to be in shambles after being dominated by Switzerland in the relegation round of last winter’s World Juniors in Helsinki, Finland. After a clear 6-3 victory over France to get the tournament started, the team needed three third-period goals against Norway to ensure a 4-2 win. A 4-3 overtime loss to host Germany was followed by a hard-fought 3-1 win over Kazakhstan.

The elation head coach Yuri Faikov felt couldn’t be masked. “I simply can’t find the words to describe how good this feels. We worked so hard for this. I am very proud of everyone involved.”

Today’s conclusive 4-0 victory was once again made possible thanks to the offensive contributions of the tournament’s top goal scorer Alexander Belevich (6 goals), later named the tournament’s top forward, and the point production of linemate Ruslan Vasilchuk, who concluded the game tied for the tournament lead with 10 points, having contribute three to this decisive victory.

“I can’t tell you how great this feeling is right now,” explained an excited Vasilchuk. “All these opponents were so strong and demanded so much of us to achieve this promotion. If I’m around the top of the scoring list here, it’s only been made possible by my teammates, who I’d like to thank for their play and sacrifice in making this experience possible.”

The chemistry between him and Belevich ended up playing a crucial role for the team’s success. And it isn’t something that just showed up out of nowhere.

“It’s hard to say what the key to this is. We played together at other tournaments before and things clicked. The coaching staff put us together here as well and it worked out again. We first really met last year as part of the U20 team, but it feels like we’ve known each other for a long, long time now.”

Of course, Belevich isn’t one to claim he was here in Bremerhaven looking to be the tournament’s top sniper. “I didn’t come here with any such expectations. I just wanted us to show up as a team and hit the ice with a purpose. It’s just a coincidence that I ended up scoring a good amount of goals. It is thanks to my partners and teammates that this was possible whatsoever.”

The year has now been a real big one of Belarussian hockey, which not only gained promotion here in Bremerhaven, but had also done so domestically in Minsk last spring at the U18 World Championship. A very common denominator there was head coach Yuri Faikov, who has manned the bench for both teams.

“It’s been such a huge year moving up at both the U18 and U20 levels,” said Faikov. “The team we have here now is a completely different team from the team that played in Finland. We as a program have unified our system from the men’s national team to the U20 to the U18. It’s been a lot of hard work and we’ve faced fierce competition in both tournaments. But yes, we’ve decided to go a different route and can now look forward to a new challenge and new results next year at this time.”

“I can’t thank the coaching staff enough for all the time and effort they put into us. I am so happy to see that all our hard work and preparation this year has led to this success, and it couldn’t be done without them,” explains Vasilchuk, speaking for the team in showing his appreciation of all Faikov and his staff have invested into these achievements.

Forward Maxim Sushko, currently playing in Canada’s Ontario Hockey League, could only concur, seeing as how he should be a big part of the team next winter in Buffalo. “I want to say thanks to the staff and all the guys born in 1997 and 1998. They’ve given us younger guys an excellent opportunity to present ourselves at the highest level of hockey and even more to a whole world of NHL scouts and media. It’s so amazing to know we’ll be part of it all next winner.”

The presentation in Bremerhaven has shown that Belarus is ready to take on 2017 with all it’s got to offer.

Norwegian relegation

For Norway, the tournament ended in the worst way imaginable, namely relegation.

Despite a pre-tournament 5-3 victory over Germany, the team kicked off things with a 6-3 loss to Austria followed by a 4-2 loss to Belarus, before squeaking by France with a tight 3-2 victory. With things looking like the Scandinavian nation was back on track, Norway couldn‘t muster a goal in a very tight 2-0 loss to Germany, a game that remained goalless until Bremerhaven‘s own Christoph Korner first popped in a power play goal in the 52nd minute of play. The goal drought continued in a do-or-die match with Kazakhstan, in which the Norwegians remainder scoreless until the third period.

Two late goals in the third period made things interesting, but it proved to be too little too late as Kazakhstan heartily celebrated their class retention. In U20 history Norway only twice was not part of the top-16 hockey nations, in 1998 and in 2007. 2011 and 2014 the country even played in the top-division World Juniors.

“The feeling is tough right now. It’s brutal. It’s tough knowing the games are over and we’re heading down. We’ve been close to this point before and we have to improve the situation with Norwegian hockey,” explained head coach Tor Erik Nilsen. “We need to invest our money more wisely. We need better coaching. We need our kids to have a better sense for the game. This relegation is definitely a heads up for Norwegian hockey. If we don’t do anything, it’s going to be like this.”

For Kazakhstan, which enjoyed a very convincing 6-3 win over Austria along the way, the victory was of decisive importance.

“Winning is always important, but this victory was vital for us,” said captain Kirill Panyukov. “This was big not only for the team, but for the entire country, because by retaining the class, we now have a strong opportunity to hold the tournament in Kazakhstan next year.”

Things are getting closer

If anything, this tournament proved more than ever that the competition continues to get closer and more even. Every team won at least one game and every team experienced at least one loss by two or less goals. Austria, for example, began with two very decisive victories, including a 3-0 shutout of host Germany, before proceeding to lose three games in a row, started by an unexpected 6-3 loss to Kazakhstan.

“Most certainly. When you see the results here, it’s clear things are getting tighter,” states Norwegian coach Nilsen. “If we had won the close game against Germany, we could have played for promotion today. Instead we played for relegation. Last year we beat Italy 10-1. This year, there was no Italy. Every game was tight. And that’s great. It’s great for hockey, but also for the players. Every game matters and that’s how you get better.”

Host Germany entered the tournament with high expectations, especially in light of a roster chock full of kids playing their last tournament as a member of the nation’s junior program. Consistency proved a bit of a problem, as the team experienced a number of swoons in momentum throughout the tournament, even if the only loss of points was to Austria and an overtime point to Belarus.

“I kept mentioning before the tournament that every team could win on any given day,” elaborated German Head Coach Christian Kunast. “If we have a good tournament, we can move up. If we have a bad tournament, we’ll be moving down. Hey, we had a close game against Norway the other night. We knew that if we lose, we’d be playing today to avoid relegation. We ended up second despite only one loss. It’s so close in this group and it’s not going to get any easier. But this is a top flight tournament for our boys and there’s a lot they can take from this type of competition. It’s so incredibly difficult to move up another level when there’s this level of level of competition.”

These sentiments were only reiterated by his Belarussian colleague Faikov: “The level of play was very high from all of the competitors, much like we saw at the U18 in Minsk last spring. You had to be ready for every team. Any team could surprise at any time. You could never afford to take a day off. In fact, when you see how good the teams are getting here in the Division I Group A, it’s my personal opinion that the top group should consider expanding to include more teams.”

As things stand now, the Belarusians can simply watch and enjoy the 2017 World Juniors in Montreal and Toronto, fully aware that their ticket is punched for the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship in Buffalo, New York.

“I fully believe we belong amongst the elite teams in the world at the U20 level. I have no doubt of that,” claims confident sniper Belevich. “We are on the right path and we’ll be ready to show that to everyone next winter in Buffalo.”

 

 

Results Thread

 

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Going up on home ice

U20 Div I B : Hungary earns promotion to Division IA

The Hungarian players celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division I Group B on home ice in Budapest.

 

After coming up just short against Poland in a heroic comeback on Day 4, the Hungarian national team was given one last chance during an exciting final day to win the gold medal on home ice. And it used it.

Poland had to settle for silver, tournament favourites Slovenia and Italy finished in third and fourth place respectively while Ukraine avoiding relegation in the final game of the tournament with a 3-1 win over Great Britain.

This 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division I Group B was filled with excitement from start to finish as by the second match it was clear that nothing was going to be according to the paper rankings.

Poland beat Ukraine 4-2 in the opening game of the championships, host nation Hungary upset Italy, who was relegated last year from the Division I Group A. Poland coach Torbjorn Johansson had the following to say after the Polish win: “The first game is always the hardest. I think we played well we had a number of scoring chances but did not score on them at the start. Ukraine is a hard opponent as they never give up, our third and fourth goals were nice. The Slovenia game will be a different game.”

The real surprise of the opening day was Great Britain forcing overtime and stealing a point from heavily favoured Slovenia. Great Britain held a late one-goal lead until Kristof Potocnik scored a power-play goal to tie the game up at 3-3. Blaz Tomazevic scored the game winner.

Ukraine defeated Italy in overtime as both teams picked up their first points in the tournament. Hungary followed up their five-goal performance on the opening day by putting five into the British net as well. Martin Sagi finished with two goals as the line of Sagi, Revesz and Peter started to come together. The closing game on Day 2 showed that if the favourites still wanted to have a chance at promotion they needed to do some math as Poland took on Slovenia.

The Polish team came out strong as Alan Lyszczarczyk scored an early power-play goal with Patryk Krezolek doubling the lead in the second period. A quick goal by Potocnik had Slovenia back within one, however, a third Polish goal meant that Slovenia needed to do some work in the third period. But in the final 20 minutes every time Slovenia closed the gap to one goal. Poland managed to go back up by two, Slovenia scored in the early part of the third period to go up 3-2. Back-to-back penalties gave Poland a two-man advantage which they capitalized. Jan Drozg made it 4-3 but Poland scored an empty-net goal for the 5-3 win thus taking control of their tournament fate.

After Slovenia cruised past Italy with a 7-0 shutout win and Hungary rode the Sagi-Revesz-Peter line to a 3-1 win over Ukraine it looked as if the third game of the tournament would follow the paper form but the day’s closing game brought more excitement. The Hungarian win over Ukraine was the first one that might not have been the smoothest according to head coach Chernomaz: “In the last ten minutes of the first period we got outplayed and after the first seven period of hockey the guys found themselves in a tied game. We had some shock therapy in the locker room and the guys reacted well, we started to battle harder and stuck to the game plan.”

In the third game of the day a Glenn Billing power-play goal in the first period and Liam Kirk score in the second period had Great Britian up 2-0 and Poland back on their heels. Head Coach Johansson and the Polish team turned to what was their bread and butter all tournament and Lyszczarczyk scored a power-play goal to get Poland back within one goal. In the final period Poland turned up the heat and scored with just under ten minutes left as a Mateusz Goscinski shot squeezed through the pads of Remy Marr to tie the game up at 2-2. It was clear in overtime that Great Britain was hoping to get the game to a shootout, which they did. Mateusz Studzinski stood tall in net as he stopped all three British shooters. On the other end Kamil Wrobel as the first Polish shooter converted his chance and Poland picked up two points and setting up a potential gold-medal match against Hungary on the second-to-last day of the championship.

Slovenia opened Day 4 knowing that they would need to take care of business on their end as well as get some help if they wanted to get promoted. They took a 2-1 lead after the first period against Ukraine and scored twice in the second to pick up the 4-1 win thanks to Zan Jezovsek, who scored twice for Slovenia.

The two remaining undefeated teams, Hungary and Poland, faced off against each other. With a win Hungary could capture the gold medal. The game started out with a five-minute major penalty against Hungary and as Poland did throughout the tournament they converted on the power play. The proficient special teams unit scored three times in the span of five minutes to open up a 3-0 lead. They followed this up with an equal strength goal to make it 4-0. At this time Hungarian coach Rich Chernomaz made the goalie change as David Kovacs, who played every minute of the tournament before, was replaced by Bence Kiss in the net.

In the second period Poland found the back of the net again as they opened up what looked as an insurmountable 5-0. In the third period Hungary came out ready to prove that they game was not over as less than a minute into the period Peter scored from close range. Ten minutes later Hungary scored two quick goals to make it a two-goal game as Revesz and Sagi both scored to join their linemate on the score sheet. In the closing minutes of the game Hungary kept up the pressure on the Polish net. Wwith less than a minute to go and the goalie pulled, Bence Stipsicz sent a shot on net from the blueline that was redirected by Kevin Szabad, went off the post and into the net.

Hungary was unable to complete the comeback as Poland picked up the win and knew that with a win against Italy on the last day they would be champions. Sometimes you need luck and according to coach Johansson, luck was on the Polish side. “We were very satisfied with our first period, in the second period we were expecting them to be coming, they had some good chances but we were lucky. In the third period suddenly they started to score goals and they were coming. We won’t change anything for our last game. We have been playing well. We just need to concentrate in the final,” he said. The Italians closed out the day with a win over Great Britain 4-1 to avoid relegation.

On the final day all Poland had to do was beat an Italian team that had nothing on the line. Regardless of what happened, Italy would finish in fourth place. The Italians took a 1-0 lead in the game but Poland tied it up on a Bartlomiej Jeziorski power-play goal. Italy scored twice before the period was over, the second one on the power play to take a 3-1 lead into the locker room. The two teams exchanged goals in the second period as Italy held onto the two-goal lead going into the third period. Poland made it 4-3 on a goal by Wrobel, but the Azzurri answered to go back to a two-goal cushion.

Poland pulled their goalie and Lyszczarczyk scored to make it 5-4, however, Poland ran out of time. With the loss this meant that the Hungarians controlled their own destiny and Poland needed help from Slovenia.

With a second chance at capturing the gold, Hungary was determined not to miss out on it. Like throughout the tournament the forward line of Peter, Revesz and Sagi was on the ice for the opening goal. Revesz won the faceoff and Peter one-timed it past the goalie.

In the second period Slovenia flipped the score on goals by Zorko and Maver. In the second intermission coach Chernomaz fired up his team for a comeback attempt in the third period, and this time they did it.

101 seconds into the third frame Revesz banged home a goal to make it a one goal-game with team captain Stipsicz scoring from the right face-off circle on the ensuing shift to tie the game at three. Minutes later Sagi put his stick on a bouncing puck in front of the goal and slapped it in for the Hungarian lead.

Stipsicz summed up the past week for his team: “It is huge that this team stuck together the way it did. I don’t think I have ever been a part of a team like this that came back so many times and in so many games in such hard circumstances. We had cohesion and team spirit. Tt was amazing how this team came together. This is what helped us prevail in all the games throughout the tournament.”

With the win Hungary won the gold medals, earned promotion to the Division I Group A and is ranked 17th overall in the U20 program – the highest ranking since reaching the same place in 2008.

Like last year Poland finished in second place and Slovenia was third. In the closing match of the day Ukraine beat Great Britain 3-1 in a battle to avoid relegation.

 

 

Result Thread

 

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ROAD TO U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

 

 

Friendly Matches

 

Canada Under 20   5 - 0   Finland  Under 20

(4-0, 0-0, 1-0)

19th. December 2016, h. 19:00 (GMT -6)

 

Slovakia Under 20   3 - 4   Sweden Under 20

(2-0, 1-1, 0-3)

19th. December 2016, h. 19:00 (GMT -6)

 

 

[hckošice 14,829]

2 minutes to go SVK was leading 3-2 but we lost 3-4, with the fourth goal scored with only 13 seconds left so close of a great win against very strong Sweden

 

since the match wasn´t streamed and televised in 2016 can´t find any of slovak goals, but does not looking promising to see a team lost two times a 2 goals lead. 2-0 after 1st period and 3-1 advantage during the last frame

 

I Found only Sweden goals

 

 

 

 

[Finnator123 292]

Good way to start defending the WJC gold     Oh well, we've always beaten Canada with teamwork, not with individual skill. Teamwork > Skill

[Canada4thewin 90]

Good start for our team I know it doesn't count  but still

 

Hopefully we will do better than last year.  And tonight we are against USA.  Go Canada Go!!!

[Canada4thewin 90]

Il y a 1 heure , Finnator123 a déclaré:

Good way to start defending the WJC gold     Oh well, we've always beaten Canada with teamwork, not with individual skill. Teamwork > Skill

You will improve, this game doesn't count just take it as a test.

 

Good luck to your team

[hckošice 14,829]

ROAD TO U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

 

 

Friendly Matches

 

Russia Under 20   (OT)2 - 1   Denmark  Under 20

(0-0, 1-0, 0-1, OT: 1-0)

20th. December 2016, h. 12:00 (GMT -6)

 

[hckošice 14,829]

IIHF website first page today   http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/home.html 

and the full article   http://www.worldjunior2017.com/en/news/ruzicka-slovakias-big-hope/