Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

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Slovakia shows

Ciger's team on a roll

Slovakia's Dominik Granak #51 celebrates with Vladimir Dravecky #22 after scoring a first period goal during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship

 

 

 

Slovakia gets its second win in as many games with a commanding performance against France.

 

Slovakia continued their winning ways with a 5-1 win over France in the Preliminary Round of the IIHF World Championships tonight at Yubileiny Arena. With two goals in the first and two more in the second periods, Slovakia gave themselves room to breathe and their second win of the tournament.

 

In the first period a pair of goals by Andrej Sekera and Dominik Granak gave Slovakia the lead after falling behind very early in. Julius Hudacek, making his first start, recorded 21 saves.

 

"I think we played better today than yesterday." Sekera said. "We played 55 minutes, not 60. Still not quite there. But we did a good job in the third period."

 

France would strike first at 1:09 into the game when Jordann Perret scored on a break as a result of the puck deflecting off Martin Marincin’s stick and heading into the Slovakia zone. Gregory Beron made the initial pass out of France’s zone before it was redirected Perret’s way. Perret wasted no time and went five hole for the score.

 

Sekera opened Slovakia’s scoring with a slapshot that beat Cristobal Huet stick side to tie the game. Sekera has goals in back to back games in this tournament. 

 

Granak pulled his team ahead 2-1. With a textbook faceoff win by Patrik Lusnak, Vladimir Dravecky controlled the puck and sent it to Granak for a blast that also beat Huet stickside. 

 

"We started the game well." Perret said. "Afterwards, we didn’t stick to our system. We started looking for long passes and all that. Against a good team like Slovakia, they were able to counter against us and take advantage."

 

For nearly fifteen minutes both teams would trade chances in the second period.

 

France had its two best chances within a three-minute stretch that if either were converted would have brought them back and leveled the score.

 

Julien Desrosiers fed Damien Raux in front for a backhand that Julius Hudacek was able to save. Then minutes later Hudacek was able to get a piece of Tim Bozon’s shot.

 

Over the final six minutes, Slovakia turned up the effort and scored twice to extend their lead and put the game out of reach. 

 

Martin Bakos scored a power play goal at 14:52 to make it 3-1. With his back to the net, Bakos grabbed the loose puck off an Andrej Meszaros shot that first hit the stick of Laurent Meunier. He swung around and fired the puck in. It was Slovakia’s first power play goal of the tournament. 

 

Less than a minute later, Libor Hudacek scored. French defenseman Beron turned the puck over in trying to clear it out of his zone. Marek Viedensky sent a pass to Tomas Jurco who found Hudacek.

 

French head coach Dave Henderson changed goaltenders in the third, giving Florian Hardy an opportunity to see some action.

 

Hardy would be tested throughout the period. He came up with big stops on Lusnak and Bakos and kept Slovakia off the board for most of the third.

 

However, Slovakia added a final goal when a two-on-one with Viedensky and Jurco and Christian Jaros trailing on the play unfolded. Jurco passed to Viedensky who slowed to find Jaros and he popped it in.

 

It was Jaros first ever senior goal in this his debut tournament with the national team.

 

Slovakia and France both get a day off tomorrow. On Tuesday, Slovakia faces Germany while France takes on Hungary.

 

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Sweden - Denmark  5-2

 

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Tre Kronor rally for win

Swede dreams, Danish nightmares

Sweden's Mattias Sjogren #15 looks for a scoring chance against Denmark's Sebastian Dahm #32 while Jesper B. Jensen #41 defends during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Championship.

 

 

Denmark flirted with a historic victory but two goals from Mikael Backlund helped Sweden battle back to record a ruthless win and move joint top of Group A.

 

On the face of it, a 5-2 win for Sweden over Denmark looks like a routine result in World Championship play. But as Group A continues to fascinate the neutrals and frustrate the favourites, Denmark saw a genuine chance to make history evaporate under the glare of a revitalised Swedish power play.

 

The Danes have never done better than a two-goal loss against their neighbour across the Oresund, but a solid counter-attacking display in the first period earned the outsider a fully deserved 1-0 lead. Things were going right at both ends of the ice: Nikolaj Ehlers was the brightest spark on a lively first line, claiming the opening goal after his shot from the point deflected off a Swedish stick and testing Viktor Fasth more than once.

 

At the back, Sebastian Dahm continued his impressive form from game one with 11 more saves and the defence was getting bodies and sticks in the way to thwart the Swedes, most notably when Gustav Nyquist’s lovely spin-o-rama pass presented Alexander Wennberg with an open goal, only for Morten Green to force the shot wide of the target.

 

After watching Sweden struggle to score against Latvia in game one, Denmark could dare to dream at the first intermission. Defenceman Adam Larsson admitted that things were not going at all well for his team.

 

"We started the game the way we played last time," he complained. "We didn't work hard enough and we didn't play north-south the way we wanted to. That hurt us. We made too many turnovers, but by the start of the second we cleaned that up and minimized their chances."

 

By the end of that second period the game was turning into a nightmare for Jan Karlsson’s men. Hurt by bad bounces and floored by penalty trouble, the Danes gave up four goals in 12 minutes and the chance of a shock win was gone. Sweden began to show the kind of class that has Par Marts regularly leading his country into the medals and ran up a final scoreline that did not wholly reflect how close we came to yet another Moscow sensation.

 

Even as the Swedes drew level there was an element of fortune about the tying goal. Denmark’s defence was doing all the right things, getting bodies in front of shots and battling for territory on the slot, but a cruel bounce diverted Oscar Fantenburg’s strike to Robert Rosen and the forward squeezed his shot between Green and Dahm.

 

Even the goalscorer agreed that luck played its part: "Oscar just tried to get it to the net and it hit something on the way," Rosen said. "It was a lucky bounce that it came to my stick and I just tried to get it on the net."

 

Denmark had no chance to regroup. A penalty on Morten Madsen presented the Tre Kronor with the chance to get ahead, but again a wicked deflection played a huge role as Mikael Backlund wrangled the puck blindly away from Dahm and rejoiced as it cannoned wildly off a Danish skate and into the empty net.

 

Now Sweden could establish the traditional gap in class between these teams. Further penalty trouble took the game out of reach. With more than 90 seconds defending a three-on-five the Danes were simply overstretched. Magnus Nygren’s one-timer from the face-off spot made it 3-1 and Backlund added his second of the night to impose maximum punishment for Denmark’s misdemeanours.

 

"We knew we had to trust our instincts," Rosen added. "We know we're a good team and have lots of skills. After 25 minutes or so we had a lot more movement on offence and created more trouble for them."

 

By the third period, for the first time in Group A action this year, the outcome was beyond doubt. Gustav Nyquist added a fifth, a composed finish for his second of the tournament, before Jesper Jensen earned a big cheer when he got a consolation goal for plucky Denmark in the last minute.

 

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Hungary - Canada  1-7

HIGHLIGHTS

 

 

 

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Kazakhstan - Russia  4-6

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Finland - Germany  5-1

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Norway - Switzerland  4-3 after OT

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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France - Slovakia  1-5

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Sweden - Denmark  5-2

HIGHLIGHTS

 

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Power Rankings

Unbeaten Canada stays on top

With the tournament's best goal difference (+10), Canada stays on top in the second edition of the Power Rankings, followed by the Finns and Czechs.

 

1.		Canada:	Fun fact: St. Petersburg is named after Bill Peters
2.		Finland:	Patrik? Olga wants to give you...a Leafs jersey!
3.		Czech Republic:	The Russians were like, “Furch!”
4.		Slovakia:	Give Ciger a cigar! (No, no, it’s a metaphor!)
5.		Sweden:	We mention Nyquist. He wins the Derby. Coincidence?
6.		United States:	Auston? Olga is going through a phase
7.		Latvia:	Nah, you’re right, Russia...it probably was Hasek...
8.		Russia:	Laika says: “Woof! Woof!”
9.		Norway:	Next on Tuesday Night Rivalry, it’s Kazakhstan-Norway
10.		Denmark:	Yes, but we have better beer
11.		France:	Allez les Blues! Allez les Blues!
12.		Kazakhstan:	“Long shot” – yep, that’s us
13.		Switzerland:	Look at his jersey! Norway’s goalie is Voldemort!
14.		Germany:	Marco Sturm is scoring like Gretzky in Phoenix
15.		Belarus:	What if we got the Zamboni to park in front of our net?
16.		Hungary:	You stole our victory, Michael Matheson

 

Previous editions:

• 6 May

 
The Power Rankings are for the enjoyment of IIHF.com readers, and reflect the progress of teams during the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. They are distinct from the official standings and IIHF World Ranking.