Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

[hckošice 16,613]

Unbelievable! Poland lost to South Korea in ice hockey thats definitely not the hockey we knew...but we must say that this South Korea team is in fact far from a real South Korea team. There 5 naturalized North America players. The Goalkeeper Matt Dalton, defencer Eric Radford, and forwards Mike Swift, Mike Testwuide and brock Radunske. No one can be surprised that Michael Swift is the leader of all scoring rankings so far, allready the best scorer with 4 goals yes it came to hockey too...

 

anyway this win will change absolutely the game for the promotion for top division.. none can be secured to advance (maybe except Slovenia, they are great and a level above all opponents here)

[hckošice 16,613]

another shitty performance from our bunch of lazy loosers .... highest time for the coaches to finally kick the asses of the players and finally make them start thinking about hockey in the rinks and not about big moneys, villas and cars at home... 

 

France - Slovakia 3-2 (GWS)

 

 

 

[rybak 3,431]

2 hours ago, hckosice said:

Unbelievable! Poland lost to South Korea in ice hockey thats definitely not the hockey we knew...but we must say that this South Korea team is in fact far from a real South Korea team. There 5 naturalized North America players. The Goalkeeper Matt Dalton, defencer Eric Radford, and forwards Mike Swift, Mike Testwuide and brock Radunske. No one can be surprised that Michael Swift is the leader of all scoring rankings so far, allready the best scorer with 4 goals yes it came to hockey too...

 

anyway this win will change absolutely the game for the promotion for top division.. none can be secured to advance (maybe except Slovenia, they are great and a level above all opponents here)

I'm glad that I turned off TV after 0-2 and not watching this circus any longer 

[Finnator123 342]

Tonight 3am Finland's time (GMT + 02) , Puljujärvi has a chance to make history.  He already won U20 gold in january and now he's trying to help his team to win U18 gold. Only 2 americans have done that before.

[hckošice 16,613]

Latvia - Denmark  4-3  (GWS)

 

[hckošice 16,613]

Latvia sends Danes down

Smirnovs gets shootout winner to cap comeback

Latvia's Deniss Smirnovs #10 high fives the bench after scoring a shoot out goal against Denmark during relegation round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

 

 

Latvia edged Denmark 4-3 in a shootout in Game Three of the relegation series. The Latvians stay in the elite division for 2017, while the Danes are relegated.

 

Deniss Smirnovs scored the shootout winner low to the stick side. Then Denmark's Rasmus Heine lost the puck when he attempted the same backhand move that had worked earlier in the shootout, and the game was over.

"In that moment you just feel so fantastic," said Latvian captain Tomass Zeile. "It’s so huge for Latvia."

Latvia rallied late from a 3-1 third-period deficit to force the extra session.

"I think we played a pretty good game for the first two periods," said Danish captain Christian Mathiasen-Wesje. "In the last 10 minutes of the third period, we got scared of making mistakes. We messed it up and they scored two goals."

Smirnovs also scored in regulation for Latvia. Renars Krastenbergs notched a goal and an assist, and Zeile had the other goal.

It's a big relief for Latvia, which won the first relegation game 5-1. Denmark bounced back in Game Two with a 4-1 win. The last time Latvia was relegated was in 2013.

"Sometimes in games when we’re losing by two goals, everyone’s head is down and it feels like you’re losing even in the locker room," said Zeile. "I think today we kept our emotions up in the room and helped each other. I think we wanted it a little bit more than them."

Oliver Gatz and Andreas Grundtvig both had a goal and an assist for Denmark, and Mathiasen-Wesje also scored. Danish goalie Kasper Krog did his best in a losing cause at the Ralph Engelstad Arena as Latvia outshot the Danes 41-25.

"He played a really great game for us," Mathiasen-Wesje said of Krog. "We took stupid penalties and we didn’t block shots for him. We didn’t take the man in front."

The Danes have only managed to avoid relegation at the U18 level once before, back in 2004.

Discipline was an issue here for the Latvians, who totalled 37 PIM in the 11:00 game on Sunday. With that said, the Danes also took 16 PIM, and it cost them in the third period.

"At the end, we were a little too nervous in my opinion," said Danish coach Martin Struzinski. "Mentally, our guys aren’t used to things like this at this level. They experienced a lot through this and hopefully they’ll get stronger out of it as human beings and hockey players."

The Danes weathered an early Latvian power play after Magnus Molge was sent off for tripping. They opened the scoring at 11:31 on their first man advantage. During a goal mouth scramble, Mathiasen-Wesje was Johnny-on-the-spot to bang a rebound past Latvian starter Gustavs Grigals.

Near the three-minute mark of the second period, Molge was shaken up on an Erlends Klavins hit in the Danish end and received attention from the trainers. His teammates helped him off the ice, while Klavins was ejected with a five-minute major for boarding.

Compounding Latvia’s woes, Krastenbergs was sent off for delaying the game after he put the puck over the glass in his own zone. The Danes capitalized on the ensuing 5-on-3, as Krag’s slapper from the top of the right faceoff circle was tipped in by Gatz for a 2-0 lead at 4:05.

Denmark continued to press for the third goal as the second period wore on. Jonas Rondbjerg failed to score on a partial breakaway. Krag’s quick release from the faceoff dot was gloved down by Grigals.

With Mathiasen-Wesje in the box for tripping, Latvia cut the gap to 2-1 on the power play at 4:57 of the third period. Krastenbergs fooled Krog with a quick wrister through traffic.

The Danes soon responded. Grundtvig powered off the side boards to the slot and flung a wrister past Grigals to restore the two-goal lead at 8:17.

At 13:56, Latvia capitalized again with the man advantage as Smirnovs whipped one past Krog's glove to make it 3-2.

The Latvians got the equalizer and rejoiced wildly when Zeile floated one past Krog from the center point with 1:07 remaining in regulation.

"The puck just came to me," said Zeile. "In my head, I said: ‘Just shoot!’ I shot it and it went top shelf."

Both sides had good chances in overtime, but couldn't cash in. The Latvians switched to goalie Marek Mitens for the shootout.

"We knew he’s a better goalie at penalty shots so we had confidence," said Zeile. "We weren’t so shocked about it."

Despite the disappointment for Denmark, there are many positive things happening with their program overall. For the second straight year, the Danish U20 team made the quarter-finals at the 2016 World Juniors in Finland. And Denmark will host the IIHF World Championship for the first time ever in 2018 in Copenhagen and Herning.

 

[hckošice 16,613]

Day 2

Slovenia - Italy  3-1

Poland - South Korea  1-4

Austria - Japan  3-1

 

[hckošice 16,613]

Late reward for Slovenia

Remains unbeaten after edging Italy

 

Slovenia took the second win in its second game at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A, 3-1 against Italy.

 

The Slovenes outshot Italy, which had a strong start against host Poland the day before, 40-24 but had trouble capitalizing on its chances in front of Frederic Cloutier, who got the start today in Italy’s net. Eventually it was two shots from the blue line that led to Slovenia’s win.

 

“It’s our goal to win all five games and we are one step forward now. It was a tough game for us. We knew that they play really well defensively and don’t make many mistakes. We tried to be very aggressive in the offensive zone from the start and scored the first goal but then we didn’t score the second,” said Ziga Jeglic, who scored the game-winning goal on a deflection.

 

“They got us a little bit in the second half of the second period but in the third period we got better and deserved the win. If we could have scored more goals in the first period it would certainly have been easier for us.”

 

Slovenia was the more active team in the first period and Italy’s first penalty already led to the first goal. At 13:15 Jurij Repe shot from the blue line and beat a screened Cloutier through his five-hole.

 

It didn’t look like the Italians would come back into the game anytime soon at the beginning of the second period but at 6:47 they converted their first shot of the frame to tie the game when Luca Frigo initiated a counter-attack that ended with Giulio Scandella’s 1-1 marker. Later in the period Frigo had a similar scoring chance when the game opened up but none of the teams hit the back of the net for the remainder of the period.

 

“Slovenia started the game really strong and put a lot of pressure in the first period,” Scandella said. “After that we played very well. We just took too many penalties and they scored two power-play goals, I think that killed us today.”

 

The Slovenes had better chances and post shots but didn’t find the means to net the puck until at 5:23 of the third period they were eventually rewarded when Jeglic deflected a long shot from Sabahudin Kovacevic during a Slovenian power play.

 

The Italian comeback attempt was fruitless and Kovacevic scored the 3-1 goal into the empty net with 27 seconds left while Italy was playing 6-on-5 for a short time.

 

 

Swift return to winning path

Korea stuns host, Poland remains winless

 

After losing on the first day it was an important day for host Poland and Korea. The Koreans ended up as the winners, 4-1, thanks to a Michael Swift hat trick.

 

The Koreans made a first step in staying in this group while for Poland the dream of earning promotion and improving from last year’s third-place finish is dwindling.

 

It was the first encounter in an official game in four years for the two teams. That’s when Korea earned promotion to this group the last time by beating host Poland 3-2 for Division I Group B gold in Krynica and Katowice seems to be a lucky place for the Koreans either.

 

The teams played at par, had a similar number of shots – 7-7, 13-14, 13-10 – and of face-offs won throughout the game. The big difference was Michael Swift’s three goals.

 

“I was lucky. I play with great players. We’re all in the system, we’re all doing the same thing and today it just happened to go for me,” Swift said modestly.

 

“We played really well yesterday [against Austria] and deserved to win and we’re happy that we got the win this time. It shows how we built on yesterday and learned from our mistakes.”

 

24 seconds into the middle frame the Korean fan sector went wild for the first time when Swift scored the first goal of the game. The Koreans passed their way through the Polish defence and after a nice feed from Sanghoon Shin it was Swift, who got the puck in front of the net and made it 1-0.

 

Three minutes later Swift hit the back of the net again. After a turnover from Aron Chmielewski the Koreans got the puck in their zone. They failed to score initially but Shin and Minho Cho battled for the puck at the end boards and after a drop pass to the crease Swift was once again at the right spot to double the lead for Korea.

 

“It was a well-fought match. It came down to the very end. Both teams played very well and it was anybody’s game,” said Paek, who praised the encouraging support from its fans at the arena, most of them Koreans working in Poland for Halla, a Korean conglomerate that is a big sponsor in Korean hockey.

 

The home crowd at Spodek suffered as the players didn’t manage to capitalize on their chances. At 8:54 of the third period it was a lucky punch that eventually brought Poland back within reach. Grzegorz Pasiut capitalized on a terrible giveaway in the Korean zone and beat goalie Matt Dalton for the 2-1 goal. It was short-lived joy though as 82 seconds later Swift made his hat trick perfect. After a long vertical pass from Don Ku Lee, Swift got the puck close to the opponent’s blueline and beat Przemyslaw Odrobny to make it 3-1.

 

“We were trying our best. It wasn’t a bad game for us. We played well. In some moments we were dominating. We had our chances but we didn’t capitalize on them. Our scoring efficiency was poor,” said Polish head coach Jacek Plachta.

 

“We have to calm down and talk because our next opponent Slovenia is I’d say the best team here.”

 

Plachta took his time-out with 132 seconds left and pulled Odrobny, however, Sangwook Kim made everything clear with his shot into the empty net with 75 seconds left for the final score of 4-1.

 

 

Austria 2, Asia 0

Lebler game-winner gives first regulation-time win

 

After needing a shootout to beat Korea yesterday, Austria also had difficult times against Japan but won the game 3-1 to finish Day 2 in second place.

 

The Austrians outshot Japan 37-27 to get their second win against an Asian team and the first regulation-time victory.

 

Austria had a great start into the game and put a lot of pressure onto Takuto Onada’s net already in the first few minutes. At 2:49 Nikolas Petrik succeeded with a low shot from behind the face-off circles that went in deflected by Japanese defenceman Shinya Yanadori.

 

The Japanese capitalized on the first power play of the game that came late in the first period. Takafumi Yamashita sent off a slap shot into the top-right corner for the 1-1 goal at 17:50 that was touched by Seiji Takahashi.

 

Like in the opening frame Austria created more opportunities than the Japanese in a second period in which none of the teams were able to capitalize on their chances. That changed early in the third period. Raphael Herburger skated along the right boards, sent of a horizontal pass to Manuel Geier, who fed goal scorer Brian Lebler at 3:32.

 

Austria’s third line succeeded against midway through the period when after a Lebler shot Herburger capitalized on a loose puck in the goal crease. Japanese defenceman Kazumasa Sasaki came too late and the chanting, flag-waving Austrian fans started to celebrate in anticipation of the first regulation-time win.

 

The Japanese became more active in the third period than in the 40 minutes before but their opportunities were too few. The best chance came after back-to-back passes of Takahashi and Daisuke Obara but the puck stuck below goalkeeper Bernhard Starkbaum on the goal line and Austria got the three points it wanted.

 

[hckošice 16,613]

Hungarian U18 moves up

Wins Division I Group B in Italy

The Hungarian U18 national team celebrates after beating Japan for Division I Group B gold.

 

The Hungarian U18 national team took the gold medal in Asiago with one game left to earn promotion to the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division I Group A for next year.

Going into the second game on Friday afternoon were the only two undefeated teams left at the tournament: Hungary, who went down from last year’s Division I Group A and Japan, who finished with the bronze, last season.

The favourites heading into the tournament were Slovenia, last year’s silver medallists, along with Hungary and Japan. The first day of the tournament already brought the first upset of the tournament as Ukraine beat Slovenia 3-1 in a game where Bogdan Stupak helped Ukraine with two goals. As expected Hungary got past Korea thanks to two goals each by Bruno Kreisz and Balint Horvath. Japan defeated host team Italy in closely contested game 3-2.

On the second match day there were no upsets but a number of close games. Japan got past Korea on a goal by Eisai Arai in a 1-0 victory. Slovenia got back on track with a win over Italy while Hungary stayed undefeated with a win over Ukraine. This time Patrik Kiss was the one who stepped up with two goals.

“We played a Ukraine team that was big. We had some penalty problems but our goalie played great and kept us in the game. We had a great compete level and great team spirit. I have never seen the Division IB play at such a high level before,” said Hungary’s head coach Glen Williamson after his team’s win over Ukraine.

Early on in the tournament it was clear that the gold medal decision could come down to the game between Japan and Hungary, especially after Japan defeated Slovenia. The Japanese took a 3-0 lead in the first period and held on for the win. Meanwhile Hungary took care of business against Italy with a 7-1 win. This game really showed the balance of the Hungarians offence as all seven goals were scored by seven different players.

“We have been running four balanced lines where everyone played great defence and we want everyone to score, all four lines play in every opportunity on the ice,” said Williamson.

With the two remaining undefeated teams facing off against each other on Friday afternoon the game became de facto a gold medal game. Japan went up 1-0 on a power play goal from Arai in the first minute of the second period, but minutes later Akos Szigeti pulled Hungary even when he skated in on a break and put the puck past the Japanese goalie.

Keitaro Yashuda gave Japan back the lead, however, Hungary tied the game again. This time Donat Szita was awarded a penalty shot that he converted to make it 2-2. Hungary took their first lead of the game on a Renato Toth goal. They would hold on to the win with an empty netter in the last seconds of the game to win the gold.

“We learned a lot from last year and we have a young team so we decided to take it game by game. We wanted to play great and to get better as the tournament went on,” said Williamson when asked to reflect on the first four games of the tournament, “With this young team we knew that we would have to work hard because we didn't know how we would stack up against the opponents. The games were very tight all throughout the tournament with the games being decided in the third period. We did get passive during some of the games, and we had to work on that.”

 

[ahjfcshfghb 296]

South Korea should not be allowed to just import Canadian players who have no connection to the country like that. For that reason I root against them until they stop that practice.