hckošice

TEAM CZECH REPUBLIC Goaltenders: Patrik Bartošák (HC Vítkovice Ridera) Šimon Hrubec (HC Oceláři Třinec) Pavel Francouz (Colorado Avalanche, NHL, ) Defencers: Michal Moravčík (HC Škoda Plzeň) Petr Zámorský (Mountfield HK Hradec Králové) David Musil (HC Oceláři Třinec) Radko Gudas (Philadelphia Flyers, NHL, ) Filip Hronek (Detroit Red Wings, NHL, ) Jan Kolář (Amur Khabarovsk, KHL, ) Jan Rutta (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, ) David Sklenička (Laval Rocket, AHL, ) Forwards: Dmitrij Jaškin (Washington Capitals, NHL, ) Jakub Vrána (Washington Capitals, NHL, ) Jan Kovář (HC Škoda Plzeň) Michael Frolík (Calgary Flames, NHL, ) Filip Chytil (New York Rangers, NHL, ) Dominik Kubalík (HC Ambri-Piotta, ) Ondřej Palát (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL, ) Michal Řepík (Vityaz Moscow Region, KHL, ) Dominik Simon (Pittsburgh Penguins, NHL, ) Jakub Voráček (Philadelphia Flyers, NHL, ) Hynek Zohorna (Pelicans Lahti, ) Tomáš Zohorna (Amur Khabarovsk, KHL, ) Radek Faksa (Dallas Stars, NHL, ) Milan Gulaš (HC Škoda Plzeň)

The Canadian coach Bob Hartley announced yesterday the final roster for the World Champs. He decided to take with him 28 players, so 3 of them will travel to Slovakia but will certainly not play in the preliminary round (where he can submit and registrate 25 players max. 3+22). As always team Latvia´s axis will be formed by the KHL long years representative and nations most famous club Dinamo Riga players, this time we can find 9 players in the team. Hartley received positive answers from 2 of their NHLers and Latvia will be reinforced in Slovakia by two forwards Rudolfs Balcers (Ottawa Senators) and Teodors Blugers (Pittsburgh Penguins), from North American ice arrived also two young talents of the Latvian hockey, the goalie Gustavs Davis Grigals of the Alaska University and the defencer Janis Jaks playing also the NCAA. The goal of the team is the Quarterfinals (they achieved it last year) and the man who is supposed to lead them fot that is the 30 years old experienced captain the Spartak Moscow forward Kaspars Daugavinš (he is right now facing some minor injuries, he didn´t play the last 2 preparation games in Switzerland, but according to the news, he should be fit for the WCh. The same for Edgars Kulda from Zlín who actually also didn´t take part in these matches for injury, but will be apparently ok for the tournament). The Goaltending #1 should and will be Kristers Gudlevskis (who in the past played some matches in NHL for Tampa Bay but spend the majority of his career in AHL before returning back home to Dinamo Riga). We can find in the team also a couple of notable names like Oskars Cibulskis, Ralfs Freibergs, Guntis Galvinš and Roberts Bukarts all playing alongside with Kulda in the league, Rodrigo Abols play in (Örebro) and Ronalds Keninš who play in NLA for Lausanne. Interesting is also to mention, Hartley did not take this year with him 2 long years members of the team, the extremely experienced veterans Mikelis Redlihs and Andris Džerinš, both were removed from the roster in this last cut. played 6 preparation games before the tournament during the last weeks, they won 2 of them and both after Overtime/penalty Shoot-Outs (the most notable is the 2-1 OT over Russia) and 3:2 OT in France over the host team. In the remaining 4 matches they had to concede defeats 0-2 in France, 2-4 against Russia and in both last weekend matches in Switzerland against the Swiss 1-4 and 0-2.

TEAM LATVIA  Goaltenders: Kristers Gudlevskis (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Gustavs Davis Grigals (University of Alaska Fairbanks, NCAA, ) Elvis Merzlikins (Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, ) Defencers: Uvis Balinskis (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Kristaps Sotnieks (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Kristaps Zile (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Oskars Cibulskis (Mountfield Hradec Králové, ) Ralfs Freibergs (PSG Berani Zlín, ) Arturs Kulda (Severstal Cherepovets, KHL, ) Guntis Galvinš (HC Oceláři Třinec, ) Janis Jaks (American International College, NCAA, ) Forwards: Oskars Batna (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Gints Meija (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Martinš Dzierkals (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Lauris Darzinš (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Emils Gegeris (Dinamo Riga, KHL) Rihards Marenis (HK MOGO) Rodrigo Abols (Örebro HK, ) Miks Indrašis (Dinamo Moscow, KHL, ) Rihards Bukarts (Schwenninger Wild Wings, ) Roberts Bukarts (Sparta Prague, ) Ronalds Keninš (Lausanne HC, ) Rudolfs Balcers (Ottawa Senators, NHL, ) Teodors Blugers (Pittsburgh Penguins, NHL, ) Maris Bicevskis (HK Muntfield Hradec Králové, )

Yeah, they struggled a lot during this tournament with their poor shooting efficiency. Even today they played almost half of the match in power plays but couldn´t score a single goal.

haha good luck

and now back to France, Philippe Bozon the former frnch legendary player and from this season also the new coach of who replaced the long long years Canadian Dave Henderson in this position, has announced the full 25 players roster for the preliminary round. Unfortunately this time will have to play at the worlds without their NHL stars, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare from Vegas and the "bad boy" Antoine Roussel from Vancouver are both injured and had to refuse the invitation. The new rising super star of the country Alexandre Texier is still playing for Columbus at the NHL Stanley Cup Play-Offs against Boston (Boston currently leading 3-2 in the series) The other notable missing names are certainly the two french KHL stars the defencer Yohann Auvitu from HK Sochi (Injury) and the long years leader of the team and captain, the forward Stephane Da Costa from Yekaterinburg (Refused the invitation this time for exhaustion after long and difficult season). will have to raly then on players from the local Magnus League and 7 players playing abroad in European leagues in and the young talented forward Jordann Perret playing in the Czech extraliga for Pardubice is one of the strongest names in the roster A lot of experience can be found also among other players like Teddy Da Costa, Damien Fleury or the new captain Sacha Treille all have in common the fact they all despite playing long years abroad returned this season back home to their national league. France played 7 preparation matches during last weeks. They won 3 matches against Latvia 2-0, against Switzerland in SUI 4-3 OT and in their last match before the departure to Slovakia last Friday over Italy in a impressive way 6-2, in the remaining 4 matches they lost both home games to Russia 1-4 and 0-2, also 2-3 OT to Latvia and 0-6 in Sierra against the host Switzerland.

Well, hopefully yes but it will certainly not beso easy at all, especially Germany will have a very strong team including one of the top NHL stars Leon Draisiatl (if there a match I am afraid of, it is definitely the match against ) their hockey style doesn´t suit us at all and it´s like this for a long time... Also Denmark can not be underestimated, they have very good players used to playing together for years tough matches in the top division. Anyway this is the top division, so each team is difficult to beat, each of these teams has strong goaltending and athletic skilled players playing hockey in strong leagues, you know that we had many surprising results in top division in the last years, nowadays hockey is definitely not the same as it was in the past, the matches are often very tense and close, and is not so uncommon to see even a underdog winning a match against bigger hockey nation. Well, the USA have one hell of a offensive team, they super fast super skilled forwards will be extremely hard to be stopped by the British, if there a chance for a double digit score at this tournament, I would bet definitely on the USA - GBR match

TEAM FRANCE Goaltenders: Henri-Corentin Buysse (Les Gothiques d´Amiens) Florian Hardy (Les Ducs d´Angers) Sebastian Ylönen (Anglet Hormadi) Defencers: Florian Chakiachvili (Les Dragons de Rouen) Pierre Crinon (Les Rapaces de Gap) Olivier Dame Malka (Nice Hockey Cote d´Azur) Hugo Gallet (Les Boxers de Bordeaux) Jonathan Janil (Les Boxers de Bordeaux) Kévin Hecquefeuille (Les Scorpions de Mulhouse) Antonin Manavian (Les Bruleurs de Loups de Grenoble) Thomas Thiry (EV Zug, ) Forwards: Eliot Berthon (Genéve-Servette HC, ) Timothé Bozon (Genéve-Servette HC, ) Charles Bertrand (HC Fribourg-Gottéron, ) Valentin Claireaux (Vaasa Sport, ) Damien Fleury (Les Bruleurs de Loups de Grenoble) Guillaume Leclerc (Les Bruleurs de Loups de Grenoble) Sacha Treille (Les Bruleurs de Loups de Grenoble) Cédric Di Dio Balsamo (Les Lions de Lyon) Anthony Guttig (Les Dragons de Rouen) Nicolas Ritz (Les Dragons de Rouen) Jordann Perret (HC Dynamo Pardubice, ) Anthony Rech (Schwenninger Wild Wings, ) Peter Valier (Les Boxers de Bordeaux) Alexandre Texier (Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, )

Road to Bratislava/Košice Exhibition Games May 5th, 2019 (5 Days to Go) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden - Finland 2-1 (Played in Czech Republic as part of the Euro Hockey Tour 2018/19) Austria - Denmark 1-3 Czech Republic - Russia 1-4 (Played as part of the Euro Hockey Tour 2018/19)

EURO HOCKEY TOUR FINAL STAGE Sunday 05.05.2019 - RESULTS EURO HOCKEY TOUR (STAGE 4/4 - CARLSON HOCKEY GAMES in Brno (GMT +2)) - 4 Nations Round-Robin Tournament Last Day 14:00 Sweden - Finland 2-1 18:00 Czech Republic - Russia 1-4 Final Standing: 1. SWE 6, 2. FIN 6, 3. RUS 3, 4. CZE 3 EURO HOCKEY TOUR 2018/19 Final Standing: 1. Russia 22 points 2. Finland 19 points 3. Sweden 17 points 4. Czech Republic 14 points

Round-Robin Final Standing Nation P W(OTW) L(OTL) GF GA +/- Pt. Kazakhstan 5 4(1) 0(0) 16 7 +9 14 Belarus 5 3(0) 2(1) 14 12 +2 10 South Korea 5 3(0) 2(0) 16 11 +5 9 Slovenia 5 2(0) 3(0) 21 12 +9 6 Hungary 5 1(0) 4(0) 7 18 -11 3 Lithuania 5 1(0) 4(0) 7 21 -14 3 The following Nations have qualified for the Men's Ice Hockey IIHF World Championship 2020 Belarus Kazakhstan The following Nation has been relegated to the Men's Ice Hockey IIHF Division I Group B World Championship 2020 Lithuania

DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS Kazakhstan 3 - 1 Hungary Period-by-Period: 0-0, 1-0, 2-1 May 5th 2019, h. 19:30, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan

DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS Belarus 1 - 4 South Korea Period-by-Period: 1-0, 0-1, 0-3 May 5th 2019, h. 16:00, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan

DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS Slovenia 9 - 0 Lithuania Period-by-Period: 2-0, 4-0, 3-0 May 5th 2019, h. 12:30, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan

Sunday May 5th, 2019 - Round-Robin Last Day Results (GMT +6) Round-Robin Alma-Ata Time (GMT +6) Slovenia 9 - 0 Lithuania Period-by-Period: 2-0, 4-0, 3-0 May 5th 2019, h. 12:30, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan Belarus 1 - 4 South Korea Period-by-Period: 1-0, 0-1, 0-3 May 5th 2019, h. 16:00, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan Kazakhstan 3 - 1 Hungary Period-by-Period: 0-0, 1-0, 2-1 May 5th 2019, h. 19:30, Barys Arena, Nur-Sultan

A real trully home competition. This is probably my biggest challenge

Another team to reveil its final roster for the world champs. Patrick Fischer announced his list of the 25 players for the preliminary round after yesterdays last preparation match against Latvia. 4 players were eliminated in the last cut Andrea Glauser, Samuel Kreis, Denis Hollenstein and Marco Müller were removed from the final squad. will arrive to Slovakia with 19 players from the local NLA and the remaining 6 spots will be fullfiled by players from overseas, including 4 NHLers (forwards Kevin Fiala from Minnesota and the 2017 NHL Draft #1 Nico Hischier of the New Jersey Devils and the Nashville top defencers Roman Josi and Yannick Weber), 2 more players from North American ice are also in the team Vincent Praplan from AHL Springfield Thunderbirds and the very talented Philipp Kurashev from the juniors QMJHL. The reigning silver medalists, played 6 preparation matches during last weeks, they won 3 of them, both last two games Friday and yesterday over Latvia (4-1 and 2-0) and last weekend over France (6-0) with the Nico Hischier hattrick. but the Swiss experienced also 3 defeats in the first two matches in Russia (1-5 and 2-5) and in the second match with France at home ice (3-4 OT). Reminder all rosters will be accessible in the first page second post of this thread.

TEAM SWITZERLAND Goaltenders: Reto Berra (Fribourg-Gottéron) Leonardo Genoni (SC Bern) Robert Mayer (Genéve-Servette HC) Defencers: Lukas Frick (Lausanne HC) Joel Genazzi (Lausanne HC) Roman Josi (Nashville Predators, NHL, ) Yannick Weber (Nashville Predators, NHL, ) Raphael Diaz (EV Zug) Michael Fora (HC Ambri-Piotta) Romain Loeffel (HC Lugano) Janis Moser (EHC Biel-Bienne) Dean Kukan (Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, ) Forwards: Gaetan Haas (SC Bern) Simon Moser (SC Bern) Tristan Scherwey (SC Bern) Alessio Bertaggia (HC Lugano) Grégory Hofmann (HC Lugano) Andres Ambühl (HC Davos) Christoph Bertschy (Lausanne HC) Lino Martschini (EV Zug) Damien Riat (EHC Biel-Bienne) Noah Rod (Genéve-Servette HC) Nico Hischier (New Jersey Devils, NHL, ) Kevin Fiala (Minnesota Wild, NHL, ) Philipp Kurashev (Québec Remparts, QMJHL, ) Vincent Praplan (Springfield Thunderbirds, AHL, ) Sven Andrighetto (Colorado Avalanche, NHL, )

Road to Bratislava/Košice Team Presentation (5 Days to Go) United States Team Jersey Home Away Medal Record

Remarkable Romania to Div. IA! Dubbed as one of the main contenders for relegation at the start of the tournament, Romania had other plans as they roared to a sensational gold at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in Tallinn, Estonia. Romania beat the Netherlands 3-1 in their final game at Tondiraba Ice Hall to surge through the tournament undefeated and take a significant leap upstairs in the international world of hockey. Power-play goals by Gergo Biro and Attila Goga put Romania two goals in front against the Netherlands. It was to be a lead they never relinquished. Outshooting the Netherlands 32-15, Balasz Peter lobbed Romania’s third in the empty net with 44 seconds to go. The win sees Romania climb up to the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A. Winning gold also means Romania will jump up on the IIHF Men's World Ranking and reach heights they have not been at since 1995 when they were 20th overall in the World Championship program. “This is incredible for us. We came here to try and stay in the group and here we are, winning all five games,” said Romania’s Daniel Tranca, voted Best Player of the Game against the Netherlands and played an integral part in the turnaround in fortunes in a team that last year survived in Division IB during the last day. “We had higher expectations going into this tournament than last year, but we honestly did not expect to promote," said Gliga. Having opened their sensational gold winning campaign in Tallinn by beating Estonia on penalty shots (4-3), they then downed Japan (3-2) which was followed up by an overtime win against Poland (3-2). Romania rolled on to topple Ukraine (5-1) before brushing aside the Dutch (3-1). “We took it game by game. We have a really good group and knew if we kept on playing really good defensively and be efficient we had a chance. The key game was against Poland. They were the big favourites and after beating them, we knew we had to do whatever it takes to win our final games,” said Gliga. While Romania celebrate their shock gold, newcomers Netherlands will head straight back down and compete at the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A. “I am disappointed that we were not able to stay in the division, but also on the other hand proud of the guys and how we played with a short bench. Everyone put everything out there, but it didn’t last,” said Dutch captain Joey Oosterweld as he is confident for a swift return to Division IB. “We did it last year and we showed during big parts of the tournament what we can do, so we have full trust and confidence to try and get up next year.” In a contest where much was at stake for both parties, Ryan Collier got a two-minute minor for a late hit on Szilard Rokaly after 3:58, which would prove costly. 47 seconds into their one-man advantage, Pavlo Borysenko struck from top of the right faceoff with Biro getting a touch on it as went past Martijn Oosterwijk for Romania´s opener. In their previous meeting at this level, the Netherlands had pulverised Romania 9-1 at the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was a defeat which sent Romania down. Five years later, it was payback time. 46 seconds into the second frame and from behind Oosterwijk´s net, Anton Butochnov fed Goga, who from the hashmarks of the right faceoff circle one-timed it home on the power play. The Netherlands clawed themselves back into the game with 2:34 left of the middle frame. Levi Nord and Jasper Nordemann won battles behind Romania´s net, before the latter rounded Romania´s cage before Nord converted his effort past Zoltan Toke. With Poland´s team and fans watching on from the stands, Romania survived three straight minor penalties in a nervy final period as the Dutch went for bust. Desperately needing goals and points onboard, Oosterwijk was pulled with 2:33 left. But 49 seconds later and with Dutch pressure mounting, Balazs Peter snapped up the puck and coolly lobbed in into the empty Dutch net. Frantically searching for a way back into the game, Oosterwijk was pulled once again with 1:14 left, but Romania held out for a sensational ending and hopefully also a start for a new exciting chapter in their hockey history. “I just hope that with this win, we somehow can convince our authorities that they have to invest in our hockey. We have big potential, but if we and the next generation don’t have the facilities, we are not going to be consistent and won’t be able to fulfil our full potential,” said Romania’s captain Gliga. IIHF.COM

and what´s new in Kazkhstan ? nothing just one more time in the arena poor Lithuania . but this was expected

Anže Kopitar having some fun..

Looks like finally someone said to Slovenia that the tournament has actually started. pity too late... at least "Na Golici" feast we have today