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MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP B WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 1 Netherlands 1 - 6 Japan Period-by-Period: 0-2, 1-2, 0-2 April 23rd 2017, h. 12:30, SSE Arena, Belfast HIGHLIGHTS Croatia 2 - 4 Great Britain Period-by-Period: 0-1, 1-0, 1-3 April 23rd 2017, h. 16:00, SSE Arena, Belfast HIGHLIGHTS Estonia 0 - 3 Lithuania Period-by-Period: 0-1, 0-2, 0-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 19:30, SSE Arena, Belfast HIGHLIGHTS Round-Robin Provisional Standing After Day 1 Nation P W(OTW) L(OTL) GF GA +/- Pt. Japan 1 1(0) 0(0) 6 1 +5 3 Lithuania 1 1(0) 0(0) 3 0 +3 3 Great Britain 1 1(0) 0(0) 4 2 +2 3 Croatia 1 0(0) 1(0) 2 4 -2 0 Estonia 1 0(0) 1(0) 0 3 -3 0 Netherlands 1 0(0) 1(0) 1 6 -5 0

So, the second Under 18 world championships in Slovakia in history ended with a triumph of the USA tonight. United States won a deserved title, their 10th U18 world title in history, the 3rd in last 4 years and 7th from last 10 years. There no doubts who is the best Under 18 ice hockey country in the world. The USA youth hockey program is just awesome and all hockey fans can show it year after year, this time once again USA U18 team won everything, all 7 matches without serious troubles (maybe in the semifinal overtime win against Sweden). Btw USA is just perfect in hockey world this year. It´s just incredible but true. USA won all 4 top divisions World championships played this season. USA won this year the Mens Under 20 WCh, the Womens Under 18 WCh, The Womens WCh and now the Mens Under 18 Wch Everything, just everything..Total respect..only 1 WCH remains the Mens WCh, let see what US team will do there... Silver for Finland. Another epic and fantastic year for the Finlands hockey, definitely one of the best europeans (if not the best) hockey school nowadays. Fantastic players, with impressive skills, great but really great skaters, amazing forwards and already top goaltenders we saw again this year. the band around Vessalainen played some exciting and highly watchable hockey. Bronze for Russia, the team which already played last year the U18 tournament because of sadly known "Meldonium" affair with the previous years team, showed that they gained last year experiences and perfectly used it now. Russia lost only 2 games in this tournament but won when it matters the most like the overtime goal in quarterfinal against Slovakia and tonights 3-0 blank in the semifinal against clearly tired swedes bring them bronze medals. 4th finished Sweden. The young tre kronor, had a strange and bad start in the tournament with a 2-2 record in the preliminary round, but suddenly shocked Canada in the quarterfinals with a perfect performance, this was unfortunately for them their last win in this tournament. 5th Canada, definitely one of the worst surprise of the tournament, rarely we see a Canadian team without this well known Canadian fighting spirit, without this vivacity and easy play. this was a really strange Canadian team, their lose 7-3 in the quarterfinal against sweden was another proof. But we know that Canada will be back, and next year we can expect another huge team amusing the world hockey fans and fighting for gold. 6th Slovakia. Ah well, a cruel, very very cruel quarterfinal lose in the last seconds of the overtime stopped a big dream of our youngs to win a medal. Yes this team had the capacities to win it. And the full arenas during the matches knew it too. this was an amazing journey, it´s a while we haven´t see such good and enthusiastic teamspirit from our team, many many future stars, we can look quite promising for the future, because one very strong generation is growing for our hockey, I assure you after what I saw these 2 last weeks we will hear in the near future about names like Feherváry, Hrehorčák, Ružička, Liška etc.. 7th Czech Republic, Another disappointement, the czechs send to Slovakia a very talented team, and expected to fight for medals, but for some reason it didn´t worked well, only 1 win during the whole tournament were clearly disappointing for this team, maybe next year, since many of the guys will still can play at U18 also for next edition. 8th Switzerland, the same as I wrote about CZE. a team with many interesting prospects -- leading by Certainly the next NHL Draft Number 1 a absolutely phenomenal Nico Hischier -- had higher ambitions than only 1 win and final 8th place. Belarus finished 9th winning the relegation round series, the newly promoted team will have thanks to this achievement the occasion to continue their U18 top division journey also another year, and it should be a special one since next year the tournament will be played in Russia. All 9 Nations will play the Mens Under 18 Top Division also next year. 10th and last finished Latvia, the Latvians unfortunately will not repeat their success of last year when they managed to maintain among the elite winning the relegation round series (a tough one) against Denmark, this time they lost it by 1-2 with Belarus and will be relegated to the Mens Under 18 Division I Group A next year where they will replace France, promoted nation for the first time in history from this years Mens U18 Div I A played few weeks ago in Slovenia.

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vesalainen named MVP Three Americans named to all-star team Ivan Chekhovich joins USA and FIN players on all-star team. Finland's Kristian Vesalainen, who led the tournament in goals (6) and points (13) was named MVP of the 2017 U18. All honours are as follows: Most Valuable Player Kristian Vesalainen Directorate Awards Best Goaltender: Maxim Zhukov Best Defenceman: Miro Heiskanen Best Forward: Kristian Vesalainen Media All-Star Team Goal: Dylan St. Cyr Defence: Miro Heiskanen Defence: Maxwell Gidon Forward: Kristian Vesalainen Forward: Sean Dhooghe Forward: Ivan Chekhovich Total attendance for the 31 games at Poprad and Spisska Nova Ves exceeded 70,000. The 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey Men’s U18 World Championship will be held in Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk, Russia, April 19-29, 2018. France won Division I-A and will play in Russia next year while Latvia lost the relegation series today and will play down in Division I-A next year.

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gold Medal Match Finland 2 - 4 United States Period-by-Period: 0-2, 1-2, 1-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 19:30, Poprad Arena, Poprad Americans re-claim gold Finland couldn't capitalize on pp, loses 4-2 The U.S. National Team Development Program produced another emphatic victory tonight in Poprad, knocking off last year's gold medallists, 4-2. The U.S. won their third gold in the last four U18s and seventh in the last nine, running the table with seven straight wins. Special teams were decisive. The Americans scored one goal with the extra man and one goal short-handed while Finland was 0-for-6 with the extra man. More impressive, the Americans have won every top-level gold medal so far this year in IIHF competition--World Juniors, World Women's, Women's U18, and now men's U18. The victors scored early and took advantage of their chances, while the Finns floundered on the power play at several crucial moments when a goal could have made a difference. Point in case, the opening goal came at 3:51 moments after a U.S. penalty had expired. Braedan Tkachuk made a sensational play on the goal. He stripped Aleksi Anttalainen of the puck along the boards in the Finnish end and fired a great pass to Josh Norris who snapped a shot in for the early lead. The U.S. made it 2-0 at 16:47 thanks again to great hustle by the set-up man. This time Jacob Tortora got on a loose puck behind the Finnish goal, over-skated the puck, went back for it, and it one motion made a backhanded pass to Joel Farabee, who made no mistake. To make matters worse, the Americans made it 3-0 early in the third scoring short-handed. Logan Cockerill made a cheeky drop pass on a two-on-two rush and Farabee finished the play nicely. Suomi got one back thanks to a quick point shot from Eemeli Rasanen that found the back of the net, but four minutes later the U.S. upped the count to 4-1 on a power play, their first of the night. Grant Mismash finished a nice pass from Quinton Hughes for the goal. The Finns made it 4-2 on a crazy play. St. Cyr came out to play the puck in front of his net, and he hit the oncoming Urho Vaakanainen. The puck bounced in, and with less than four minutes to go, the Finns has a sliver of hope. Luukkonen came to the bench soon after, but the Finns could get no closer. Results Thread

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Poland 2 - 1 Ukraine Period-by-Period: 1-0, 0-1, 1-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 20:30, Palace of Sports, Kyiv HIGHLIGHTS

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Poland 2 - 1 Ukraine Period-by-Period: 1-0, 0-1, 1-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 20:30, Palace of Sports, Kyiv Poland wins neighbouring clash Host Ukraine remains winless after two games On Day 2 of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A, Poland got its first victory against Ukraine. The hosts remain winless. The two teams delivered the 5,291 fans a tight battle in which Damian Kapica broke the deadlock with the 2-1 game-winner at 6:34 of the last period. Polish goalie Przemyslaw Odrobny made 37 saves and was selected as best player of his team. “The third period was really tough for a goalie. I got a lot of shots onto the net. The first and second period we played very well on defence and in the neutral zone, I didn’t face too many shots. We’re so happy that we came back after losing the first game. It’s always hard to play the first game. I think this win will be a game changer for the next game. Everybody still believes that we have a chance to earn promotion,” Odrobny said. “We are very, very happy that we won this game. It was really tight. It could have been a win for any team. Both goalies played really good,” added Poland’s assistant coach Torbjorn Johansson. Four-and-a-half years ago the home crowd cheered on a 5-1 win for Ukraine in the Olympic Qualification campaign against Poland at the very same Palace of Sports in Kyiv and one year later Ukraine beat Poland 4-3 in a game on home ice in Donetsk for promotion to the Division I Group A. This time it’s the other way around. Like at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A two years ago, when Poland won 3-2 in Krakow and Ukraine was relegated, Poland edged out its southeastern neighbour for another tight win that puts the hosts in a tough position. “It’s very tough to lose. Our players played well but when it comes to scoring I’d wish a not so academic style of play in front of the net but just to score more. That’s our weak point,” said Ukrainian head coach Olexander Savitsky, who had to do without Artem Bondaryev, who suffered a knee injury. “We are waiting for more information from the doctors.” The Ukrainians had a good first period but didn’t manage to score. At 3:46 Sergei Kuzmik intercepted a puck but his shot landed into the glove of Polish netminder Odrobny as did many other shots. Poland did it better with four seconds left in the first period and on its first power play. Tomasz Malasinski scored after a pass from behind the net from Grzegorz Pasiut. Ukraine wanted to come back in the second period but for a long time failed in front of the Polish net. But eventually the equalizer came, and it came late again. With Ukraine’s Dmytro Nimenko and Polish defenceman Mateusz Rompkowski screening the goalie a shot from Roman Blagy found its way between the two and into the Polish net to tie the game at one. In the third period it was Kapica who scored the game-winning goal when he first deked defenceman Olexander Pobiedonostsev at the left face-off circle before scoring the much-sought-after goal from central position. An opportunity to equalize knocked when Poland got two consecutive penalties midway the period and Ukraine head coach Savitsky took his time-out. But the host nation didn’t capitalize on its chances and once the power play was over had to play with one man less when Denys Isayenko was assessed a hooking penalty when he tried to prevent a Polish breakaway. Once it expired the Ukrainians had just three-and-a-half minutes left but didn’t find a way to score again.

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Poland 2 - 1 Ukraine Period-by-Period: 1-0, 0-1, 1-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 20:30, Palace of Sports, Kyiv Round-Robin Provisional Standing After Day 2 Nation P W(OTW) L(OTL) GF GA +/- Pt. South Korea 2 2(0) 0(0) 9 4 +5 6 Hungary 1 1(0) 0(0) 5 3 +2 3 Poland 2 1(0) 1(0) 4 5 -1 3 Kazakhstan 2 1(0) 1(0) 5 7 -2 3 Austria 1 0(0) 1(0) 2 3 -1 0 Ukraine 2 0(0) 2(0) 4 7 -3 0

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016/2017 DENMARK ESBJERG ENERGY 2nd League Title ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Esbjerg repeats Knight scored OT winner to defend Danish title Anders Koch is among the players who won the second Danish championship in two years with Esbjerg Energy. When Mark Pederson signed with Esbjerg Energy in 2013, the club had made it past the quarter-finals just once in the previous ten years. His first year behind the bench yielded another quarterfinal loss, but the last four years have produced first a silver and then two consecutive Danish titles. Esbjerg Energy beat the Gentofte Stars 4-3 in Game 5 of the final, having lost a 3-1 lead in the closing minutes of the third period. Energy could regroup and then Jared Knight scored the game winner five minutes into the second overtime period. “We let them back into the game, and we shouldn’t have, but that’s part of the game. In overtime, both teams waited for their golden chance, and fortunately, we got ours,” Anders Krogsgaard, an Energy defenseman, told JydskeVestkusten. Esbjerg had previously won five Danish titles, in 1969, 1988, 1993, 1996, 2004, and 2016. This year, Pederson, a native of western Saskatchewan, coached his young and mostly Danish Energy fourth in the regular season. The team’s average age was under 24 years, and it boasted with 19 Danish players on its roster, 13 of them Esbjerg natives. The Stars, in turn, had missed the playoffs two years in a row, having been promoted to the top division in 2014. They, too, had thirteen players trained in the local Copenhagen metropolitan area clubs and it was the first Zealand club to make it to the final since 2002. Pederson told JydskeVestkusten that he always believed in his team despite problems early in the season. “I really did believe in the team because I saw in the Champions Hockey League games that we had the potential. We just needed to be able to use it,” he said. He called this year’s team the most talented team he’s ever coached. “I don’t want to compare it to last year’s team because it’s a different team and a different style, but both teams went through a process and grew [into champions] during the season,” he said. Like so often, adversity pulled the team together. For Energy, that happened over the World Juniors when the team both suffered from injuries and had players on the Danish WJC team. “When they returned from the World Juniors, they could sense that something had changed in the dressing room, there was a different atmosphere, as if the players had decided that our problems weren’t going to stop us,” Pederson told JydskeVestkusten. “I’m sure it helped us this season that we were reignign champions. That gave us confidence and the players who won the title last season kept reminding us that we could do it again,” Knight said. While the core of Energy may have consisted of young Danes, their top offensive talent came from North America. In the regular season, the team’s top five scoring leaders included four Canadians and an American, with Brock Nixon leading the way with 20 goals and 47 points in 45 games. He also won the post-season scoring title with 19 points in 17 games. And then there was Jared Knight, who tapped in Kodie Curran’s pass from the doorstep at 5:01 into the second overtime period, sending the team and its fans into a frenzy. “It was a wonderful pass, all I had to do was tap it in. This is the coolest feeling. Honestly, it’s a bit of a blur to me, I just remember that I hugged Ryan Martindale and then we were all in one big pile. It was crazy, an incredible experience,” Knight said. “We never gave up, we believed in ourselves, and this season has made us brothers,” he concluded.

Friendly Matches 23rd April 2017 Mens Road to World Championships Germany - Czech Republic 3-4 After GWS Italy - Slovenia 1-4

ah ok, my bad

yes I am surprised to see 4 of them, it looks the amount is rising, last year at world champs you had (if I´m not mistaken) only 2 Andy Sarauer and Kevin Wehrs.

Kazakhstan: Kevin Dallman Nigel Dawes Dustin Boyd Martin St. Pierre Brandon Bochenski + Artemi Lakiza is a former Russian player. South Korea: Matt Dalton Alex Plante Michael Swift Eric Regan yep I agree, this is pretty weird, because in opposite of Korea, Kazakhstan has a quite good history in this sport and many many talented players, but well, they wanted to win successes rapidly and they decided to go this way, building quickly a strong KHL team Barys Astana, buy many North Americans to this club and naturalize them. now they all play in KAZ National Team, but without real successes

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bronze Medal Match Russia 3 - 0 Sweden Period-by-Period: 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 April 23rd 2017, h. 15:30, Poprad Arena, Poprad Russians take bronze, 3-0 Misfiring Swedes can't capitalize on chances Sweden had the better of play, created more scoring chances, and had the puck more, but Russia scored the goals, taking the bronze with a 3-0 win over Sweden. The medal was Russia's first in six years at the men's U18. The last one was a bronze in 2011. "It’s not first place," said Kirill Maximov, "but it’s still a medal, and it’s a good result after the semi-final yesterday. I think we played well as a team and we got a medal - not exactly the one we wanted, but it’s better than nothing." Sweden, last year's runner-up, finished in fourth place this year. "It’s a real disappointment," offered Swedish coach Torgny Bendelin. "Absolutely. You have to capitalize on your chances. We gave them a power play - a simple mistake and they scored there. The second goal was a terrible mistake from us, and they scored on their chances. Then they played very solid defence after that. We had a few chances, but we didn’t score on them." Kirill Ustimenko stopped 30 shots to record the shutout while Adam Ahman blocked 22 of 24 in the Sweden goal.He was a surprise starter given that Maxim Zhukov had played the last three games in a row. "The overtime goal yesterday [in a loss to Finland] wasn’t a very good one, and we didn’t want to take the risk of putting Zhukov in because we didn’t think he was in the right mental state," Russian coach Sergei Golubovich revealed. "We thought Ustimenko was the right choice. He did a great job tonight." This was the first shutout ever in a U18 bronze-medal game since the current playoff format started in 2003. The team's had identical records head-to-head before the game, splitting 12 games and scoring 35 goals each. As of today, Russia now has a 7-6 advantage and has scored more goals. The game featured just four minor penalties, two a side, and was played at a brisk clip. Russia opened the scoring late in the first period on a great second effort by Danila Galeniuk on a power play. He deftly tipped Andrei Svechnikov's shot, but it hit the post and landed right there. Falling, Galeniuk nudged the puck over the line before Ahman could react. The Russians made it 2-0 early in the second when a wayward pass up the middle was picked off by Dmitri Samorukov. He kept the puck in at the Sweden blue line, took a couple of steps and then ripped a wicked shot over Ahman's glove. Sweden had several opportunities to get back in the game but fired wide or failed to finish time and again. The most glaring passed chance came on a penalty shot midway through the game. Lucas Elvenes was stopped by Kirill Ustimenko. Svechniov had two great chances to add to the Russian tally in the third, making one great rush and snapping a quick shot frmthe slot, but both chances were stopped expertly by Ahman. Kirill Maximov finished the scoring with an empty netter with 15 seconds remaining. "It definitely wasn’t our best game," said Erik Brannstrom. "We were at our best against Canada. I don’t know what to say. I’m very disappointed. We had lots of shots, but we didn’t score. We didn’t play such a bad game, but it wasn’t good enough."

well it´s not that Kazakhstan is a 100% Kazakhs team neither in fact KAZ has more Canadian/USA naturalized players in their roster than S. Korea but yeah taht still not change the fact that Korea has them a lot too ofc but still less than KAZ

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Kazakhstan 2 - 5 South Korea Period-by-Period: 1-1, 1-0, 0-4 April 23rd 2017, h. 17:00, Palace of Sports, Kyiv HIGHLIGHTS

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Kazakhstan 2 - 5 South Korea Period-by-Period: 1-1, 1-0, 0-4 April 23rd 2017, h. 17:00, Palace of Sports, Kyiv Korea writes history Beats favourite Kazakhstan 5-2 Korea wanted to surprise and did it by writing history. The Olympic host country beat Kazakhstan for the first time ever, 5-2. The win lifts Korea to first place and in a good position to earn promotion to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark with three more games to go. “What a game! We gained momentum. Kazakhstan is a very hard team to play and we’re fortunate to come out with a win. The more experiences we have in games with teams like Kazakhstan the better we get. We historically don’t have that much experience against teams like Kazakhstan so that helps us,” Korean head coach Jim Paek said. The game ended a series of eight consecutive wins for Kazakhstan in Division I play since losing the last game 2-1 against Hungary four years ago in Budapest. In the teams’ last encounters Kazakhstan beat Korea 4-0 at the 2017 Asian Winter Games and 4-2 at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A. “Our competitor was a very strong team. They played much better than us especially in the third period. We were simply not good enough today,” said Kazakhstan head coach Eduard Zankovets. The defeat looked avoidable at first considering that Kazakhstan had more shots and started the game with a nice goal. Brandon Bochenski sent a drop pass to Nigel Dawes, who fed Bochenski to the front so he could open the scoring at 8:01. Jin Hui Ahn tied it up at 15:56 as he reacted fastest after a face-off in the offensive zone won by Kisung Kim for the 1-1 first-period score. At 13:25 of the second period Dawes scored his third goal of the tournament converting a pass from the end boards by Martin St-Pierre to give Kazakhstan a 2-1 lead going into the third period. Early in the last frame the game was interrupted to repair a small break in the boards and once it continued the Koreans scored. Alex Plante, a former first-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers who moved to Korea two years ago, one-timed a Minho Cho pass at 5:49. And just 74 seconds later the Koreans capitalized on a counter-attack with Sanghoon Shin hammering the puck in top-shelf from the left face-off circle. At 9:58 Plante scored on a long shot to make it 4-2 and forcing Kazakhstan coach Eduard Zankovets to use his time-out. The Kazakhs still had ten minutes to get back into the game but a major penalty against Alexander Lipin for boarding didn’t make it easier. The Koreans reacted immediately with Kisung Kim deking Vitali Kolesnik with 8:19 left on a two-man advantage. The 5-2 score stayed until the end and Korea celebrated a historic win.

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 2 Kazakhstan 2 - 5 South Korea Period-by-Period: 1-1, 1-0, 0-4 April 23rd 2017, h. 17:00, Palace of Sports, Kyiv

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Relegation Round Match 3 (2) Belarus 3 - 1 Latvia (1) Period-by-Period: 2-0, 0-0, 1-1 April 23rd 2016, h. 13:30, Arena Spisska Nova Ves, Spisska Nova Ves Belarus wins decisive Game 3 Latvia relegated, Belarus stays in top division Defenceman Artyom Borshyov assisted on two goals as Belarus beat Latvia 3-1 in the third and deciding game of the relegation series. “It’s an amazing feeling,” Borshyov said after the game. “It’s very cool for us, especially for me because I’m the youngest player on the team. It’ll be a great tournament next year.” Borshyov is one of four players on the Belarus roster that will be eligible to play in the top division of the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Russia, while Latvia will go down to Division 1, Group A. “We played really well and it’s a great feeling,” said Belarusian defenceman Vladislav Yeryomenko. “We’re staying in the top division and that was our goal.” Viktors Jasunovs, a forward for AIK Solna in Sweden, scored the lone Latvian goal. He is one of three players on the team eligible to return next year, so getting demoted is especially devastating for him. However, he declared: “I will do everything in my power to help get this team back into the top division.” In all three games of this series, it seemed like the team that got off to the faster start was the one in control. After not playing their best game on Friday night, when they had a chance to wrap up the series, the Belarusians weren’t going to let it escape them a second time. “We played much better today than Friday,” Borshyov figues. “We just played much smarter and made simpler decisions. We played our game and didn’t get away from the plan.” First period goals from Ivan Drozhdov and Dmitri Deryabin - the latter coming with just 35 seconds on the clock - put Belarus in the driver’s seat and Latvia in a desperate situation. “We weren’t like a team today,” said Jasunovs. “We played as individuals, not as a team.” Try as they might, however, Latvia just couldn’t get anything going, as the Belarusian team played tight defensively. Then when Andrei Pavlenko deflected Borshyov’s shot past Niklavs Rauza with exactly 16 minutes to play, it was going to take a miracle for Latvia to win. “I just put the puck to the net and our offensive player got his stick on it and scored,” Borshyov described. “I’m not usually part of the offence, but today our forwards were really good finishing plays. But I got two assists, so that’s fine,” he smiled. They did get a goal with 9:27 to play, however. When two penalties gave the Latvians a two-man advantage for 58 seconds, coach Igors Smirnovs pulled Rauza to give his team a 6-on-3 advantage. They moved the puck around nicely and Jasunovs finished off the play to break the shutout. “I waited for the pass from our defenceman (Renars Karkls) at the side of the net and I scored,” Jasunovs described. “And we got more chances after that but couldn’t score again.” In fact, Latvia got four power plays in a row in the third period and another 6-on-3 with the goalie pulled. That one goal was all they got from it, however, as Belarus hung on to win.

So Banská Bystrica became for the first time ever Slovak Champions. Congrats ! Team which lost the 2 previous seasons finals finally completed the dream of the whole city. Great success for team coached by former world champion Vladimir Országh and lead by such stars like another 2002 world champion Michal Handzuš or Tomáš Surový, and amazing american goalie Jason Bacashihua in the net. Highlights of yesterdays 5th final Match. Banská Bystrica won 6-2 and in total 4-1 in the final series. and the trophy and the atmosphere

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Semifinal Sweden 3 - 4(OT) United States Period-by-Period: 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, OT: 0-1 HIGHLIGHTS

MEN'S UNDER 18 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Semifinal Finland (OT)2 - 1 Russia Period-by-Period: 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, OT: 1-0 April 22nd 2017, h. 15:30, Poprad Arena, Poprad HIGHLIGHTS

After the Division IA started today in Ukraine, tomorrow will also start the Mens Division I Group B in Belfast. Also the final day of the Mens Under 18 Top Division in Slovakia is scheduled for tomorrow as well. Tomorrow will start the Mens Division I Group B World Championships in GB. 6 Nations and will battle for the only 1 available spot for the next years Mens Division I Group A World Championship and to avoid last place and the relegation to the Mens Division II Group A 2018. Mens Division I Group A World Championships 2017 in Kyiv (UKR) Day 2 Schedule (23rd April 2017) GMT +3 17:00 Kazakhstan vs South Korea 20:30 Poland vs Ukraine Livestream Mens Division I Group B World Championships 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland (GBR) Day 1 Schedule (23rd April 2017) GMT +1 12:30 Netherlands vs Japan 16:00 Croatia vs Great Britain 19:30 Estonia vs Lithuania *Tournament Format: 6 Nations will play a single round-robin tournament. Each teams plays each opponent once. The first ranked team of the event will be promoted to Division I Group A next year. The teams ranked from 2nd to 5th will play in this division also during the next years edition, The last-ranked team will be relegated to Division II Group A next year. Livestream Mens Under 18 Top Division World Championships 2017 in Poprad and Spišská Nová Ves (SVK) Day 10 Schedule (23rd April 2017) GMT +2 Last Day Relegation Round in Spišská Nová Ves 13:30 Match 3 - Belarus vs Latvia *Best-of-3-Matches Series, Standing is 1-1, this is the deciding last direct match, the winner of the game will win this relegation round serie, will be ranked 9th this year and will maintain among the Mens Under 18 worlds elite also for next year, the losing team will be relegated down to Mens Under 18 Division I Group A next year. Bronze Medal Match in Poprad 15:30 Russia vs Sweden Gold Medal Match in Poprad 19:30 Finland vs United States Livestream

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 1 Austria 2 - 3 Kazakhstan Period-by-Period: 0-2, 2-0, 0-1 April 22nd 2017, h. 20:30, Palace of Sports, Kyiv HIGHLIGHTS

MEN'S DIVISION I GROUP A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round-Robin DAY 1 Austria 2 - 3 Kazakhstan Period-by-Period: 0-2, 2-0, 0-1 April 22nd 2017, h. 20:30, Palace of Sports, Kyiv Dawes double for Kazakhs Austria came back but Kazakhstan starts with win Kazakhstan started with a crucial win between recent top-division nations by edging Austria 3-2 on the opening day. Austria recovered after losing the opening frame 2-0 after two goals from Nigel Dawes to tie the game in the second period but Vladimir Markelov scored Kazakhstan’s game winner in the third. Austria was the first team to net the puck after 53 seconds but Thomas Raffl influenced the play while standing in the goal crease and the game continued 0-0 until Nigel Dawes’ netted a pair of goals for Kazakhstan. It was penalties that hurt Austria in the first period. And the third consecutive one was used by the Kazakhs. At 8:28 Dawes deked defenceman Martin Schumnig shooting the puck at the sideboard and then had the way to the goal free to beat Bernhard Starkbaum with a precise shot. Three minutes later the Austrians were lucky as a shot from Kazakhstan’s Vladimir Markelov just hit the post. At 14:53 Dawes again escaped and concluded the breakaway with a top-shelf shot to make it 2-0 for the Kazakhs. The Austrians improved in the second period. At 4:32 Raffl was skating in a circle before letting go a shot that Konstantin Komarek deflected to cut Kazakhstan’s lead to 2-1. With two-and-a-half minutes left in the second period Raffl tied the game when he was in front of the net surrounded by opponents but still managed to score on his own rebound. Early in the third period the Kazakhs capitalized on their first power play. Roman Savchenko sent a shot from the blue line to the goal that Markelov deflected for the 3-2 marker. The Austrians had a couple of chances in their attempt to tie the game again but the Kazakhs defended the lead and got their first points as they’re hoping to get promoted back to the top division again.