Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

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ROAD TO

IIHF MEN´S ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016

 

FRIENDLY MATCHES

 

Norway  1 - 5  Finland    

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

17th April 2016, h. 14:00 (GMT +2)

 

France  1 - 2   Denmark    

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

17th April 2016, h. 15:00 (GMT +2)

 

Germany  (GWS)3 - 2  Sweden    

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

17th April 2016, h. 16:45 (GMT +2)

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Latvia - United States  1-12

 

 

 

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U.S. demolishes Latvia, 12-1

Americans lead Group A with nine points

The puck gets past Latvia's Niklavs Rauza #1 for a first period goal while USA's William Lockwood #10 looks on during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

If Neil Young rewrote one of his hits for the U.S., it’d be “Scorin’ in the Free World.” The hosts pounded Latvia 12-1 for their third straight win on Sunday.

 

Trent Frederic scored a hat trick and added an assist. Kailer Yamamoto potted two goals, and Adam Fox, Kieffer Bellows, and Clayton Keller had a goal and two assists apiece as the U.S. moved closer to wrapping up top seed in Group A.

James Sanchez, Joey Anderson, Zachary Walker, and Nick Pastujov also scored for the Americans. All in all, 16 different U.S. players recorded a point or more.

"It just shows you the depth of this team," said Yamamoto. "They definitely picked a great team for this tournament and I’m just looking forward to going to the medal round."

Vladislavs Nazarovs replied for Latvia, which lost its previous two games in extra time.

This outcome was predictable, if even more lopsided than past history might have led you to anticipate. The U.S. won the previous two U18 meetings with Latvia 8-0 (2007) and 7-1 (2013). The defending champions are gunning for their tenth U18 gold medal since this tournament began in 1999.

Final shots favored the U.S. 58-23. They have outscored their rivals 26-4 so far.

This was the third-biggest margin of victory in tournament history, equalling the 12-1 U.S. victory over Belarus in 2006. Canada set the record with a 15-1 win over Denmark in 2005.

The Americans will complete their preliminary schedule against Switzerland on Tuesday. Latvia gets another chance to crack the win column against Russia on Monday.

"The next game is a big one," said U.S. head coach Danton Cole. "We’ll get a day of rest and get ready for Switzerland and keep moving through it. When you’re done with one game, the next one’s the most important."

The Latvians did their best early on, though they ran into penalty trouble with a bench minor for too many men and a cross-checking minor to Olafs Berzins, which gave the U.S. an extended two-man advantage.

On a subsequent Latvian power play, Oettinger had to be sharp to foil Erlends Klavins from point blank range. And then hope swiftly died for the Baltic nation.

At 14:27, the U.S. drew first blood. Sanchez rushed the puck into the Latvian zone, pulled up in the right faceoff circle, and squeezed a bad-angle shot through Niklavs Rauza, who his first start in goal for Latvia.

Two minutes later, Anderson gobbled up a Bellows rebound and flung it past a lunging Rauza to make it 2-0.

Of his line's chemistry together, Bellows said: "I feel like as the season has gone on, it’s gotten even better."

Late in the period, Walker took a run at Emils Gegeris, who was clearing the puck out of Latvia’s zone. The Latvian forward crumpled to the ice while trying to dodge the hit and was helped off, while Walker was penalized.

Just 30 seconds into the second period, the U.S. moved the puck up ice beautifully for a 3-0 lead. Logan Brown sent it cross-ice to Yamamoto, who snapped it high to the glove side for his third goal.

"We had some good transitions from the D zone and I think our play in the offensive zone was pretty good," Yamamoto said.

At 8:26, playing shorthanded, Nazarovs zoomed down the right side and zinged a shot that tipped off the inside of U.S. captain Ryan Lindgren’s leg and fooled Oettinger to cut the deficit 3-1.

The American response was swift and uncompromising: three goals in just 1:09.

At 9:38, Walker put one through Rauza, who looked frustrated, and then Frederic scored top corner at 10:03.

Latvian coach Eriks Miluns pulled Rauza in favor of Gustavs Grigals. It didn’t make any difference.

Fox was allowed to waltz in unobstructed for the 6-1 goal at 10:47. According to USA Hockey, in the 6-1 win over Sweden, Fox became the single-season NTDP points leader among defenceman, including both regular season and U18 World Championship play.

The Latvians called their timeout and that didn’t make any difference either.

Yamamoto scored his fourth of the tournament at 6:31 of the second as he tried to feed it across the goal mouth and Grigals inadvertently knocked it into his own net with his blocker hand.

At 17:30, it was 8-1 when Pastujov walked in over the blueline, cut to the left and scored over Grigals’s glove.

In the third period, Keller made it 9-1 with a nice drag-and-drop move at 8:04. He then set up Bellows beautifully on a turnover for the tenth U.S. goal.

Penalties added up in the dying stages as Latvia's frustration with the lopsided score boiled over. Frederic added a power play tally at 15:24 to make it 11-1.

"From our side, I was OK with how things were going," said Cole. "I told guys: ‘Stay out of it. You don’t have to expose yourself and get run from behind. Protect yourself.’"

U.S. forward Graham McPhee was ejected with a five-minute major with 3:14 left for a high hit on Valters Apfelsbaums in the neutral zone.

Frederic's shorthanded goal on a breakaway at 18:44 rounded out the scoring at 12-1.

 

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Denmark - Finland  1-4

 

 

 

 

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Finns remain unbeaten

Puljujarvi added, doesn’t play in win over Danes

Finland's Eetu Tuulola #19 celebrates a first period goal against Denmark with Markus Niemelainen #21, Kasper Kotkansalo #36, Otto Somppi #24 and Markus Nurmi #27 during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

Finland defeated Denmark 4-1 on Sunday night to temporarily take over top spot in Group B. The Finns have played three games to second-place Canada's two.

 

Eeli Tolvanen scored twice for Finland, and Janne Kuokkanen and Eetu Tuulola added singles.

"These games are not the easiest to get prepared for," said Finnish captain Juuso Valimaki. "But we got four goals and we had lots of chances. Credit to Denmark for the way they fought. They blocked tons of shots and their goalie was good. We won 4-1, so that’s all that matters."

Christian Mathiasen-Wejse answered for Denmark. Some Danish players were sporting ice packs after the game.

"I think we played a pretty good game, but the Finnish guys are pretty good," said Mathiasen-Wejse. "They deserved to win. They are just better than us. But I thought we fought well."

The Finns outshot Denmark 46-10, as Leevi Laakso had a much more relaxing night between the pipes than his Danish counterpart Kasper Krog.

This was the fifth straight Finnish win over Denmark at the IIHF World U18 Championship, dating back to 2004.

Finland completes its round-robin on Tuesday versus Canada. Denmark's last preliminary game is Monday against the Czechs.

"It’s going to be a tough game," said Kuokkanen. "We have all the keys in our hands to win the game, but we have to use them well to get the three points."

The Finns opened the scoring at 7:38. Otto Makinen centered it from the wall to Kuokkanen, who calmly cruised in and beat Krog to the stick side for his third goal of the tournament.

Just 44 seconds later, Tuulola made it 2-0, lifting a wicked wrister from the right faceoff circle under the crossbar.

Denmark cut the deficit to 2-1 on the power play with 3:43 left in the first. Nikolaj Krag’s shot from inside the blueline was tipped in by Mathiasen-Wejse. The Danes were lucky to trail by just one after 20 minutes, after being outshot 16-4.

In the second period, the Finns let the Danes hang around for a while. With under nine minutes left, Denmark’s Joachim Blichfeldt rang one off the post.

Tolvanen finally gave Finland some breathing room at 14:16, one-timing home Aapeli Rasanen’s cross-ice feed on the rush.

Shots favored the Finns 17-1 in the third period, and they controlled the play. The Danes waited until the last moment to pull their goalie for an extra attacker. Tolvanen scored an empty-netter with 20 seconds left.

"I couldn’t ask more of the boys than they did today," said Danish coach Martin Struzinski. "They battled hard and they sacrificed themselves with blocked shots. Of course, I would like to have had more shots, but we worked very hard in our own zone."

Forward Jesse Puljujarvi has been added to Finland’s roster, but did not play in this game. Puljujarvi led the gold medal-winning Finnish team with 17 points in seven games at this year’s IIHF World Junior Championship in Helsinki. He was named a tournament all-star, Best Forward, and tournament MVP.

"It’s a big thing for us," said Valimaki. "He’s a great, great player. He’s a great team player too. So now we’ve got an even deeper lineup."

The 17-year-old Puljujarvi, who became available after Karpat Oulu was eliminated in the Liiga playoffs, is widely considered a top-three prospect for the NHL Draft. In last year’s U18 tournament, where Finland won silver, he had seven points in seven games.

 

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Kyrgyzstan wins at home

Promoted to top Challenge Cup top division

Tournament MVP Oleg Kolodi of Kyrgyzstan is followed by India's Ali Amir.

 

Since their inception into the IIHF Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia program, Kyrgyzstan has taken a silver medal (2014) and a bronze (2015) in Division I play.

In 2016 they completed their collection by winning the gold on home ice in Bishkek and also promotion to the top division where they will join the likes of Chinese Taipei, United Arab Emirates, Mongolia and Thailand.

The home nation powered their way to tournament victory like they were the forty clans of Manas putting on a goal scoring exhibition that saw them claim the title after just three of their four games played.

Two goals from team captain Amanbek Esen Uulu, Salamat Tynaliev, Oleg Kolodi and Duulat Abyshev disposed of Kyrgyzstan’s first opponents India by 11-1. Goalkeeper Elzar Bolotbekov kept his concentration making just eight saves against newcomer Qatar to record the only shutout of the Cup, while Oleg Kolodi scored four goals handing Kyrgyzstan a 9-0 victory over Qatar.

In what was to eventual be the theoretical gold medal game on Day 3 of the tournament between Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia, a superb individual performance by goal-scoring machine Oleg Kolodi ensured that his team would get to celebrate promotion in front of their home fans. Kolodi found the back of the net seven times and assisted on Uulu’s goal to have his hand in all of his team’s goals in their 8-4 win. The home team then capped off the tournament with another dominant 8-1 performance over Macau.

On the final day, Malaysia captain Ban Kin Loke’s nine-point (4G+5A) game insured that they would go home with the silver medal, beating India 11-5. Macau’s two wins handed them the bronze ahead of Qatar in fourth place in their first Challenge Cup, and a winless Indian team.

Oleg Kolodi’s goal haul merited that he would be named the Cup’s Most Valuable Player. Macau’s Tel in Chu was awarded best goalkeeper, while India’s Ali Amir and Malaysia’s Ban Kin Loke were named best defenceman and best forward respectively.

 

[Finnator123 342]

I hope that Estonia could win a couple of matches in DIVISION 1, Group A 

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6 hours ago, Finnator123 said:

I hope that Estonia could win a couple of matches in DIVISION 1, Group A 

 

EST is actually in group B

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Russia - Latvia  7-0

 

 

 

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Russians rule the roost

Latvia to play relegation after another big loss

Russia celebrates a second period goal against Latvia during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

Russia scored four first-period goals and never looked back in a 7-0 shellacking of Latvia on Monday. Mikhail Bitsadze and Maxim Marushev both scored twice.

 

Alexei Lipanov added a goal and an assist, and Andrei Svechnikov and Mark Rubinchik also scored for Russia. Captain Kim Kostin and Vladimir Kuznetsov had two assists apiece.

The result sends Latvia to the relegation round, starting on Thursday.

"We played with a focus on structure," said Russian assistant captain Mikhail Sergachyov. "It was a better game than we've played before. One of the best in the tournament so far."

Russian goalie Danil Tarasov earned his first U18 tournament shutout and second win as Russia outshot Latvia 46-20. It was Russia's first regulation win in Grand Forks after losing 8-2 to the host U.S. and edging Switzerland 2-1 in overtime.

After a promising start with extra-time losses to Switzerland and Sweden, Latvia’s tournament has degenerated. It lost 12-1 to the Americans on Sunday afternoon, and didn’t seem to have much gas in the tank for this battle with its neighboring rival.

The Russians had ample room to show off their offensive skills all afternoon long.

"We scored seven goals, including power-play and shorthanded ones, which is good," said Sergachyov. "It will help us in the next game and the quarter-finals."

It was the fifth consecutive Russian victory over Latvia at this tournament, dating back to 2007. Russia wraps up its Group B slate against Sweden on Tuesday.

At 7:24, Bitsadze thought he’d given Russia the early lead, but the play was video-reviewed and it was waved off since he kicked the puck into the net.

Svechnikov opened the scoring for real on the power play at 11:09, taking a nice pass from Pavel Dyomin at the Latvian blue line, cutting in off left wing, and tucking a backhand past Latvian starter Mareks Mitens.

The Russians ran roughshod over their opponents with three quick goals late in the first period.

Lipanov made it 2-0 at 17:43, busting down the middle and surprising the Latvian netminder with a high, fluttering shot.

Bitsadze got the third Russian goal just 14 seconds later, as Kostin capitalized on a turnover below the Latvian goal line and centered the puck to him right in front and he made no mistake.

Latvian coach Eriks Miluns made the futile gesture of pulling Mitens in favor of Gustavs Grigals. The Russians scored on their first shot, as Rubinchik got behind the Latvian defence and roofed it stick side for a shorthanded tally at 18:55.

The second and third periods turned into a sloppy penalty-fest.

With the teams playing 4-on-4, Bitsadze took a fabulous diagonal cross-ice pass from Kostin and cruised in to give Russia its fifth goal at 5:49.

Marushev stretched the lead to 6-0 at 14:35, going hard to the net to convert Vladimir Kuznetov’s feed.

In the final stanza, Marushev got his second of the game on a 5-on-3 at 4:06, squeezing one through from the left faceoff circle.