Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

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what a match from the czechs

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IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016

Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016

 

 

Final Ranking

 

   Slovenia

 

   Italy

 

   Poland

 

 

• 4. Austria
• 5. South Korea
• 6. Japan

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DAY 5

ITALY - SOUTH KOREA  2-1

AUSTRIA - SLOVENIA  1-2

POLAND - JAPAN  10-4

 

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Italy’s hopes alive

Beats Korea 2-1 to open exciting final day

 

Italy beat Korea 2-1 thanks to strong team play and goalie Andreas Bernard in great shape with 26 saves before his shutout was spoiled late in the game

 

Bernard credits the strong defensive play, many blocked shots and a great penalty kill to the win while up-front Joachim Ramoser, his third of the tournament, and Daniel Tudin scored the goals.

 

“I feel great. To win is a great thing. Now we have to see how it continues. We thought we’ll improve here but that we improved that much astonishes all of us and makes us happy,” Ramoser said.

 

Thanks to the victory Italy will win at least the bronze medals and keeps its chance for a second-place finish and possible promotion to the top division alive but they need Slovenia to beat Austria in regulation time in the next game to claim the silver medals. Even Poland still has a slim chance for promotion if Austria beats Slovenia in regulation time and they beat Japan in regulation time in the last game.

 

“We cannot influence what’s not in our hand anymore. We have a medal for sure and will celebrate it and if we can move up that would be beautiful,” Ramoser said.

 

For Italy promotion would be a big success since the “Italians first” principle was introduced last season and less players developed outside of the country were named to the national team than in the past. The strategy change ended with a disappointing fifth-place finish last year but this season the young team improved, won the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round on home ice in Cortina and now moved up to past performances in Division I Group A play.

 

Korea came to the game knowing that a win would keep their chances of going to the top division alive. The team made progress in international hockey and this could be seen in the head-to-head games against Italy too. In the last games Italy beat Korea 4-0 in 2013, 6-0 in 2011 and 7-1 in 2004. This year’s result is a clear improvement but it wasn’t not enough to get promoted.

 

That wasn’t expected though before the tournament and with the fourth or fifth-place finish the Koreans reached their goal. If they finish fourth (and 20th overall in the World Championship program) it would even been the best placement ever for the Korean men’s national team.

 

Despite the loss disappointment was written all over the players’ faces. “That’s hockey,” a speechless Korea coach Jim Paek said before going to the dressing room. “They scored a power-play goal early and stood pretty good defensively. We couldn’t find a way to get the goal needed,” forward Brock Radunske added.

 

Italy capitalized on a successful start into the game. Five seconds into the first power play Joachim Ramoser opened the scoring for Italy at 2:38. Daniel Tudin won the face-off, the puck went to Giulio Scandella and Thomas Larkin, whose long shot was blocked but Ramoser capitalized on the rebound.

 

Korea had its chances to come back – Italy had a 29-27 shot advantage – but many of the chances were not dangerous enough and the Italians showed a strong defensive performance as in most of the games here in Katowice.

 

With 5:25 left in regulation time Tudin seemed to seal the win for the squadra azzurra. He skated from the side board along the goal line without being attacked and beat Matt Dalton from close distance.

 

But then coach Korea Jim Paek took his time-out and pulled goalie Matt Dalton when Italy was assessed a penalty while Korea already had a player in the penalty box. With five-on-four Radunske fired of a slap shot that went in for the 2-1 goal with 3:47 to go and spoiled Bernhard’s shutout – but not more than that.

 

Slovenia promoted

Earns another crucial win against Austria

 

Slovenia beat Austria for Division I gold, as it did in 2012 and 2014, to earn promotion to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France.

 

In a tightly fought game the Slovenes defeated Austria 2-1 in the neighbouring clash and will play in the top division for the ninth time as an independent nation after 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2015. For Slovenia it’s the fourth consecutive gold in Division I play after 2010, 2012 and 2014.

 

“I think we came strong and showed real team character. The third period was a tough one but our goalie was awesome in the net and I think it was a well-deserved victory today,” Slovenia captain Jan Urbas said.

 

Italy will finish in second place and will have the chance to get promoted as well if there will be two relegated teams from the top division, which will be the case as long as next year’s co-hosts Germany and France won’t finish in the bottom two places of their preliminary-round group of the upcoming 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In that scenario only one team would be relegated and only Slovenia as the tournament winner promoted as it was approved by the last IIHF Congress (see tournament format).

 

Austria will have to settle with third or fourth place depending on the outcome of the Poland-Japan game. Finishing 19th or 20th overall is the country’s worst placement in history since joining the international stage at the 1928 Olympics.

 

“We were at par with them 5-on-5 but unfortunately they had a five-minute power play and gained momentum from it. Our power play was not as efficient as it should be. At this level it’s important to have good special teams and there’s for sure room for improvement for our power play,” Austrian defenceman Markus Schlachter said.

 

“We have to look to the future and improve some things. It’s not so easy to earn promotion. It’s as difficult as staying up. Everybody battles for survival as we saw with Poland and Korea, nations we didn’t expect it and who showed great hockey.”

 

At 5:49 Austria opened the scoring after 48 seconds on its first power play. Manuel Ganahl saw his shot after Konstantin Komarek’s pass from the face-off circle to the crease blocked but via Markus Schlacher the puck came back to Komarek, who scored.

 

Five minutes later the Slovenes tied the game on a counter-attack. Rok Ticar sent a blind pass forward to Ziga Jeglic on the right side, who skated behind the net and found Robert Sabolic on the left side, who made it 1-1 with his shot.

 

“It was a good and interesting tournament for us. We started the tournament really well, then didn’t have a good game against Poland but we overslept, came out harder against Korea and today we beat our big rival Austria,” Ticar said.

 

“It’s always interesting against them, they have a good team. It was not the perfect game for us but we battled really hard and helped each other. We wanted a little bit more, we blocked a lot of shots and did the dirty job a little bit more than them.”

 

Early in the middle frame Alexander Pallestrang hit Slovenia’s Andrej Hebar to the head and neck area and was assessed a major penalty. Both players had to leave the ice, Pallestrang with the penalty, Hebar due to the injury.

 

It looked like the Austrians would be able to kill the five-minute penalty but 12 seconds before it expired, Ken Ograjensek scored on a rebound to give his team the lead. The next big chance belonged to Slovenia as well when Sabolic appeared along in front of Austria goalie Bernhard Starkbaum but was tripped by the goalie while he tried to clear the puck. The Slovenes were not able to convert the power play.

 

Austria dominated the beginning of the third period until taking a penalty after eight minutes but Gasper Kroselj kept the Slovenian net clean and two power plays helped Slovenia withstand the pressure and defend the lead until the end with Austria playing 6-on-4 for the last 50 seconds of the game.

 

“I’m disappointed about our game. We had three wins and then only one goal in two games with that many chances. The players prepared so well and worked so hard on and off the ice. We did so many battle drills for this game. But that’s sport. That’s life. Sometimes hockey is a metaphor for life. Sometimes you do everything and don’t get the result you want. The players battled hard and should keep their heads up. They don’t deserve to be embarrassed,” Austria head coach Daniel Ratushny said.

 

“We have to make a step forward with our scoring. We need to score more goals as we saw last year in Prague as well. If we want to become a top-division nation we have to improve that and keep investing in the development of young players, in good coaching, get more kids in. It’s a long-term project to do that.”

 

Ratushny, who will move from Austrian champion Red Bull Salzburg to Swiss club Lausanne HC, hopes to stay as national coach for next season.

 

“It’s my wish to stay with the national team and with these character players. It’s a privilege to work with them. It’s a question of the federation and of my club team. We’ll have to discuss that. Working for the Olympic Qualification is our next big challenge. We hope to have the top Austrians from the NHL teams. It’s going to be tough to qualify against pretty good teams but we’ll start working on this goal,” said Ratushny. Federation President Dieter Kalt announced that after having to stay in the second tier of world hockey, the Austrians aim at submitting a bid to host the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

 

The Final Olympic Qualification from 1st to 4th September will be the next big event in the calendar for both teas. Austria will play host Latvia, Germany and Japan in Riga while Slovenia will face host Belarus, Denmark and Poland in another group in Minsk.

 

And the Slovenes hope to have their NHL player too.

 

“It’s our plan to have Anze Kopitar back. We talked about it and I think it shouldn’t be a problem as long as he’s healthy. From the Olympic Qualification we will move on to the World Cup so it will be good preparation for him,” coach Zupancic said.

 

He will have five months to make his team ready and surprise the world again like in the qualification to and the Olympic tournament in Sochi 2014. But first he and his team will celebrate earning promotion to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which will take place in Cologne, Germany, and Paris, France.

 

Hosts finish with bronze

Goal galore in last game against Japan

 

Host Poland improved throughout the tournament and moved up to a bronze-medal finish after beating Japan 10-4 in front of 8,500 fans in the last game.

 

Poland’s goals came from nine different scorers. Only Aron Chmielewski hit the back of the net twice.

 

Patryk Wronka opened the scoring after already 50 seconds and three minutes later Chmielewski capitalized on a rebound during a power play. Tomasz Malasinski scored with a top-shelf shot from the left face-off dot another three minutes later and Maciej Kruczek even made it 4-0 with his shot into the top-left corner. Goals from Grzegorsz Pasiut and Krystian Dziubinski followed.

 

With 4.7 seconds left in the first period Hiroki Ueno brought Japan onto the scoreboard on a counter-attack for the 6-1 first-period score. But if anybody had hopes the game would become closer now, the Poles destroyed these with two early second-period goals.

 

With 60 minutes played the score was 10-4 and Poland had outshot the winless Japanese, who will be relegated to the Division I Group B, 51-22.

 

Poland was already out of the race for silver and a potential ticket to the top division after Slovenia’s win over Austria. The Poles entered the last day with a theoretical chance of 4.7 per cent to earn silver but the scores in the previous game was not favourable so they just went out and played their game against Japan to earn at least the bronze medals. The fans thanked with “dziekuje” chants at the end of the game.

 

For Poland it’s a good ending of the second home tournament in a row after also winning bronze in Krakow last year. After starting with two losses against the bottom-seeded teams into the tournament, the event could have ended in a disaster for the host team but after a day off the Poles came to life and beat top seeds Slovenia (4-1) and Austria (1-0) before closing with another win against Japan. Had the Poles earned just one more point against Italy and Korea, they could possibly have been promoted to the top division for the first appearance since 2002. That’s something they will surely attempt to do next year after two straight bronze-medal wins.

 

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Urbas named MVP

Award winners, All-Star Team named

 

Slovenian captain Jan Urbas was honoured as Most Valuable Player of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A.

 

After winning gold and earning promotion, Urbas accepted the award as MVP of the tournament. He won the vote by the accredited media in Katowice and was named to the All-Star Team.

 

Urbas and Ken Ograjensek were leading the Slovenian offence with six points (2+4) each.

 

The tournament directorate consisting of representatives from the participating teams, the IIHF and the organizer selected Austria’s Benjamin Starkbaum as Best Goaltender of the event, Italy’s Thomas Larkin as Best Defenceman and Patryk Wronka of host Poland won the Best Forward award.

 

Individual Awards (selected by the tournament directorate)
 

Best Goalkeeper: Bernhard Starkbaum,
Best Defenceman: Thomas Larkin,
Best Forward: Patryk Wronka,

 

 

All-Star Team (selected by the media)

 

GK: Gasper Kroselj,
DE: Sabahudin Kovacevic,
DE: Pawel Dronia,
FW: Michael Swift,
FW: Jan Urbas,
FW: Patryk Wronka,

 

 

Most Valuable Player (selected by the media)
 

Jan Urbas,

 

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ROAD TO

IIHF MEN´S ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016

 

FRIENDLY MATCHES

 

Hungary  2 - 3  Kazakhstan    

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

29th April 2016, h. 19:00 (GMT +2)

 

Norway  5 - 1  France    

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

29th April 2016, h. 19:00 (GMT +2)

 

Switzerland  (OT)2 - 1  Latvia    

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

29th April 2016, h. 19:45 (GMT +2)

 

Germany  5 - 3  Belarus    

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

29th April 2016, h. 20:00 (GMT +2)

 

 

 

EURO HOCKEY TOUR 2015/16 SERIE

 

Czech Republic  7 - 1  Sweden    

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

29th April 2016, h. 19:20 (GMT +2)

 

 

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IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016

Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016

 

 

 

Italy - South Korea  2-1

 

[hckošice 16,613]

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016

Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016

 

 

 

Austria - Slovenia  1-2

 

[hckošice 16,613]

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016

Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016

 

 

 

Poland - Japan  10-4

 

[hckošice 16,613]

VENUES

 

VTB Ice Palace Moscow

 

 

Capacity: 12,100

VTB Ice Palace is a modern multi-purpose sports hall built for the needs of Ice Hockey World Championship 2016 and opened in 2015. There are 3 different arenas: large, small, and sports training Hall. The venue Held usually hockey matches, but also basketball, wrestling, boxing, MMA as well as various concerts. The sponsor of the arena is VTB - one of the leading Russian banks.

The Arena is capable thanks a unique system to tap 10,000 beers for visitors per 15 minutes. In the middle of the venue is a multimedia area, which has a size of up to 136 meters. more than 200 plasma screens are installed for visitors that they can follow everything even if they are not in the stands.

 

Arena Yubileiny St. Petersburg

 

 

Capacity: 7300 spectators

The sports hall was built in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of Soviet power. In the past, home of the basketball team Spartak St. Petersburg today is one of the most significant figure skating training centers. In addition to sports activities the Arena is the homeplace of famous artists performing here during various concerts and music festivals.