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Urbas named MVP Award winners, All-Star Team named Slovenian captain Jan Urbas was honoured as Most Valuable Player of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A. After winning gold and earning promotion, Urbas accepted the award as MVP of the tournament. He won the vote by the accredited media in Katowice and was named to the All-Star Team. Urbas and Ken Ograjensek were leading the Slovenian offence with six points (2+4) each. The tournament directorate consisting of representatives from the participating teams, the IIHF and the organizer selected Austria’s Benjamin Starkbaum as Best Goaltender of the event, Italy’s Thomas Larkin as Best Defenceman and Patryk Wronka of host Poland won the Best Forward award. Individual Awards (selected by the tournament directorate) Best Goalkeeper: Bernhard Starkbaum, Best Defenceman: Thomas Larkin, Best Forward: Patryk Wronka, All-Star Team (selected by the media) GK: Gasper Kroselj, DE: Sabahudin Kovacevic, DE: Pawel Dronia, FW: Michael Swift, FW: Jan Urbas, FW: Patryk Wronka, Most Valuable Player (selected by the media) Jan Urbas,

Italy’s hopes alive Beats Korea 2-1 to open exciting final day Italy beat Korea 2-1 thanks to strong team play and goalie Andreas Bernard in great shape with 26 saves before his shutout was spoiled late in the game Bernard credits the strong defensive play, many blocked shots and a great penalty kill to the win while up-front Joachim Ramoser, his third of the tournament, and Daniel Tudin scored the goals. “I feel great. To win is a great thing. Now we have to see how it continues. We thought we’ll improve here but that we improved that much astonishes all of us and makes us happy,” Ramoser said. Thanks to the victory Italy will win at least the bronze medals and keeps its chance for a second-place finish and possible promotion to the top division alive but they need Slovenia to beat Austria in regulation time in the next game to claim the silver medals. Even Poland still has a slim chance for promotion if Austria beats Slovenia in regulation time and they beat Japan in regulation time in the last game. “We cannot influence what’s not in our hand anymore. We have a medal for sure and will celebrate it and if we can move up that would be beautiful,” Ramoser said. For Italy promotion would be a big success since the “Italians first” principle was introduced last season and less players developed outside of the country were named to the national team than in the past. The strategy change ended with a disappointing fifth-place finish last year but this season the young team improved, won the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round on home ice in Cortina and now moved up to past performances in Division I Group A play. Korea came to the game knowing that a win would keep their chances of going to the top division alive. The team made progress in international hockey and this could be seen in the head-to-head games against Italy too. In the last games Italy beat Korea 4-0 in 2013, 6-0 in 2011 and 7-1 in 2004. This year’s result is a clear improvement but it wasn’t not enough to get promoted. That wasn’t expected though before the tournament and with the fourth or fifth-place finish the Koreans reached their goal. If they finish fourth (and 20th overall in the World Championship program) it would even been the best placement ever for the Korean men’s national team. Despite the loss disappointment was written all over the players’ faces. “That’s hockey,” a speechless Korea coach Jim Paek said before going to the dressing room. “They scored a power-play goal early and stood pretty good defensively. We couldn’t find a way to get the goal needed,” forward Brock Radunske added. Italy capitalized on a successful start into the game. Five seconds into the first power play Joachim Ramoser opened the scoring for Italy at 2:38. Daniel Tudin won the face-off, the puck went to Giulio Scandella and Thomas Larkin, whose long shot was blocked but Ramoser capitalized on the rebound. Korea had its chances to come back – Italy had a 29-27 shot advantage – but many of the chances were not dangerous enough and the Italians showed a strong defensive performance as in most of the games here in Katowice. With 5:25 left in regulation time Tudin seemed to seal the win for the squadra azzurra. He skated from the side board along the goal line without being attacked and beat Matt Dalton from close distance. But then coach Korea Jim Paek took his time-out and pulled goalie Matt Dalton when Italy was assessed a penalty while Korea already had a player in the penalty box. With five-on-four Radunske fired of a slap shot that went in for the 2-1 goal with 3:47 to go and spoiled Bernhard’s shutout – but not more than that. Slovenia promoted Earns another crucial win against Austria Slovenia beat Austria for Division I gold, as it did in 2012 and 2014, to earn promotion to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France. In a tightly fought game the Slovenes defeated Austria 2-1 in the neighbouring clash and will play in the top division for the ninth time as an independent nation after 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2015. For Slovenia it’s the fourth consecutive gold in Division I play after 2010, 2012 and 2014. “I think we came strong and showed real team character. The third period was a tough one but our goalie was awesome in the net and I think it was a well-deserved victory today,” Slovenia captain Jan Urbas said. Italy will finish in second place and will have the chance to get promoted as well if there will be two relegated teams from the top division, which will be the case as long as next year’s co-hosts Germany and France won’t finish in the bottom two places of their preliminary-round group of the upcoming 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In that scenario only one team would be relegated and only Slovenia as the tournament winner promoted as it was approved by the last IIHF Congress (see tournament format). Austria will have to settle with third or fourth place depending on the outcome of the Poland-Japan game. Finishing 19th or 20th overall is the country’s worst placement in history since joining the international stage at the 1928 Olympics. “We were at par with them 5-on-5 but unfortunately they had a five-minute power play and gained momentum from it. Our power play was not as efficient as it should be. At this level it’s important to have good special teams and there’s for sure room for improvement for our power play,” Austrian defenceman Markus Schlachter said. “We have to look to the future and improve some things. It’s not so easy to earn promotion. It’s as difficult as staying up. Everybody battles for survival as we saw with Poland and Korea, nations we didn’t expect it and who showed great hockey.” At 5:49 Austria opened the scoring after 48 seconds on its first power play. Manuel Ganahl saw his shot after Konstantin Komarek’s pass from the face-off circle to the crease blocked but via Markus Schlacher the puck came back to Komarek, who scored. Five minutes later the Slovenes tied the game on a counter-attack. Rok Ticar sent a blind pass forward to Ziga Jeglic on the right side, who skated behind the net and found Robert Sabolic on the left side, who made it 1-1 with his shot. “It was a good and interesting tournament for us. We started the tournament really well, then didn’t have a good game against Poland but we overslept, came out harder against Korea and today we beat our big rival Austria,” Ticar said. “It’s always interesting against them, they have a good team. It was not the perfect game for us but we battled really hard and helped each other. We wanted a little bit more, we blocked a lot of shots and did the dirty job a little bit more than them.” Early in the middle frame Alexander Pallestrang hit Slovenia’s Andrej Hebar to the head and neck area and was assessed a major penalty. Both players had to leave the ice, Pallestrang with the penalty, Hebar due to the injury. It looked like the Austrians would be able to kill the five-minute penalty but 12 seconds before it expired, Ken Ograjensek scored on a rebound to give his team the lead. The next big chance belonged to Slovenia as well when Sabolic appeared along in front of Austria goalie Bernhard Starkbaum but was tripped by the goalie while he tried to clear the puck. The Slovenes were not able to convert the power play. Austria dominated the beginning of the third period until taking a penalty after eight minutes but Gasper Kroselj kept the Slovenian net clean and two power plays helped Slovenia withstand the pressure and defend the lead until the end with Austria playing 6-on-4 for the last 50 seconds of the game. “I’m disappointed about our game. We had three wins and then only one goal in two games with that many chances. The players prepared so well and worked so hard on and off the ice. We did so many battle drills for this game. But that’s sport. That’s life. Sometimes hockey is a metaphor for life. Sometimes you do everything and don’t get the result you want. The players battled hard and should keep their heads up. They don’t deserve to be embarrassed,” Austria head coach Daniel Ratushny said. “We have to make a step forward with our scoring. We need to score more goals as we saw last year in Prague as well. If we want to become a top-division nation we have to improve that and keep investing in the development of young players, in good coaching, get more kids in. It’s a long-term project to do that.” Ratushny, who will move from Austrian champion Red Bull Salzburg to Swiss club Lausanne HC, hopes to stay as national coach for next season. “It’s my wish to stay with the national team and with these character players. It’s a privilege to work with them. It’s a question of the federation and of my club team. We’ll have to discuss that. Working for the Olympic Qualification is our next big challenge. We hope to have the top Austrians from the NHL teams. It’s going to be tough to qualify against pretty good teams but we’ll start working on this goal,” said Ratushny. Federation President Dieter Kalt announced that after having to stay in the second tier of world hockey, the Austrians aim at submitting a bid to host the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A. The Final Olympic Qualification from 1st to 4th September will be the next big event in the calendar for both teas. Austria will play host Latvia, Germany and Japan in Riga while Slovenia will face host Belarus, Denmark and Poland in another group in Minsk. And the Slovenes hope to have their NHL player too. “It’s our plan to have Anze Kopitar back. We talked about it and I think it shouldn’t be a problem as long as he’s healthy. From the Olympic Qualification we will move on to the World Cup so it will be good preparation for him,” coach Zupancic said. He will have five months to make his team ready and surprise the world again like in the qualification to and the Olympic tournament in Sochi 2014. But first he and his team will celebrate earning promotion to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which will take place in Cologne, Germany, and Paris, France. Hosts finish with bronze Goal galore in last game against Japan Host Poland improved throughout the tournament and moved up to a bronze-medal finish after beating Japan 10-4 in front of 8,500 fans in the last game. Poland’s goals came from nine different scorers. Only Aron Chmielewski hit the back of the net twice. Patryk Wronka opened the scoring after already 50 seconds and three minutes later Chmielewski capitalized on a rebound during a power play. Tomasz Malasinski scored with a top-shelf shot from the left face-off dot another three minutes later and Maciej Kruczek even made it 4-0 with his shot into the top-left corner. Goals from Grzegorsz Pasiut and Krystian Dziubinski followed. With 4.7 seconds left in the first period Hiroki Ueno brought Japan onto the scoreboard on a counter-attack for the 6-1 first-period score. But if anybody had hopes the game would become closer now, the Poles destroyed these with two early second-period goals. With 60 minutes played the score was 10-4 and Poland had outshot the winless Japanese, who will be relegated to the Division I Group B, 51-22. Poland was already out of the race for silver and a potential ticket to the top division after Slovenia’s win over Austria. The Poles entered the last day with a theoretical chance of 4.7 per cent to earn silver but the scores in the previous game was not favourable so they just went out and played their game against Japan to earn at least the bronze medals. The fans thanked with “dziekuje” chants at the end of the game. For Poland it’s a good ending of the second home tournament in a row after also winning bronze in Krakow last year. After starting with two losses against the bottom-seeded teams into the tournament, the event could have ended in a disaster for the host team but after a day off the Poles came to life and beat top seeds Slovenia (4-1) and Austria (1-0) before closing with another win against Japan. Had the Poles earned just one more point against Italy and Korea, they could possibly have been promoted to the top division for the first appearance since 2002. That’s something they will surely attempt to do next year after two straight bronze-medal wins.

DAY 5 ITALY - SOUTH KOREA 2-1 AUSTRIA - SLOVENIA 1-2 POLAND - JAPAN 10-4

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016 Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016 Final Ranking Slovenia Italy Poland 4. Austria 5. South Korea 6. Japan

what a match from the czechs

with this rhythm Japan will receive a pretty nice debacle tonight

Updated as of April 29th, 2016

Updated as of April 29th, 2016

and it´s over. Slovenia - Austria 2-1. Slovenia won the division I A world championships 2016 and is promoted back into top division next year in Germany and France. Slovenia also saved the Italians with this result. Italy will end the tournament in second place and is almost qualified. almost, because this year we have an exception, next year there 2 nations which will co-host the world championships and both will play in the same preliminary group this year, so if both of them Germany and France will finish on bottom places of the St. Petersburg preliminary group (7th and 8th) none will be relegated from this group this time and thus Slovenia will be the only one newcommer next year in the top division replacing the relegated team from the Moscow group.

only 1 goal in this major power play for Slovenia. but very important goal from Ken Ograjenšek. Slovenia now leading 2-1 at 8th minute of the 2nd period. The slovenians again are opening the doors of the top division for Italy

Not a smart move by Austrian Pallestrang with his liquidation foul on Hebar. Slovenia now with a major 5 minute power play

11th minute Robert Sabolič equalize the score 1-1. great action of the Slovan Bratislava forwards Jeglič-Tičar and nice shot of Sabolič. this result after 60 minutes will qualify both teams SLO and AUT

Austria opened the score at 6th minute by Konstantin Komarek.

Italy defeated South Korea 2-1 what´s the situation after this result now? so... current standing 1. SLO 9 points (still 1 match to play) 2. ITA 9 points 3. AUT 8 points (still 1 match to play) 4. KOR 7 points 5. POL 6 points (still 1 match to play) -------------------- 6. JPN 0 points (still 1 match to play) Slovenia ahead of Italy because of head to head confrontation SLO-ITA 3-1 Now chances of each teams are: SLO will qualify from 1st place if they will defeat Austria (no matter if in regulation time or in over time) SLO will qualify from 2nd place if they lost with Austria in overtime. or if they lost with Austria in regular time, but Poland will not win over Japan in regulation time. ITA will qualify from 2nd place if Slovenia will win over Austria in regulation time. AUT will qualify from 1st place if they will win over Slovenia no matter how in regulation time or over time. AUT will qualify from 2nd place if they will lost with Slovenia in over time. POL will qualify from 2nd place if they will win over Japan in regulation time and Slovenia will lost with Austria in regulation time.

Cross-Karawanks clash for gold Five teams in race for promotion on last day One of the most balanced IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A tournaments enters the last day with five teams in race for promotion. The eyes will be especially on the “final” for gold between Austria and Slovenia. The two top-seeded teams were expected to perform well and although both of them suffered a loss to host Poland, it will be Austria and Slovenia who battle for Division I Group A gold and direct promotion to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. “It will be a tough battle for sure. We know they are very good skaters and very good technically. They have tall players who can play physical,” said Austria goalie Bernhard Starkbaum, who played every minute in Austria’s net and had a 94.17 save percentage after four games. “But we know we have potential too. We have good skating abilities and can compete against every opponent. We know that we can use our chance and that’s what we have to do.” It’s not the first time these two teams play a crucial game. In 2014 Slovenia won Division I Group A gold thanks to a 3-1 win against Austria on the last day, for Austria the loss didn’t matter that much though as they were promoted as second-ranked team. Two months earlier both teams had a good start at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and were seeded together in the qualification playoff. Slovenia was again the winner, 4-0, to reach a historic quarter-final berth while the Austrian team hit the headlines for the wrong reasons with players having had a long night out in the mountain cluster two days before the game and the aftermath that followed. In 2012 when Slovenia hosted the Division I Group A in Ljubljana, the Slovenes again ended up as the winner, 3-2, while Austria earned promotion as well. Austria’s last win in the cross-Karawanks clash was in the relegation round of the 2011 Worlds where they won 3-2 against Slovenia but both teams suffered relegation. “It will be a really difficult game, a derby. We will do everything to earn promotion again but we have to show it on the ice. It will be a difficult game for both teams. Small things will decide. It’s the right game for gold between the best two teams here,” said Slovenian defenceman Klemen Pretnar. “They play tactically well. They have players on the roster who can decide the game on their own. But I shouldn’t say more. It’s a derby. I have many friends in Austria but for these 60 minutes I have to forget that and I’ll give everything for my country. We have to play disciplined from the first minute and play well on defence.” For many players this clash will be special because of close ties across the Karawanks mountain range. Several Slovenian players play their club hockey in Austria like Klemen Pretnar and the country’s best club team Olimpija Ljubljana players in the Austrian-based, multi-national league EBEL. A car or train ride between the Austrian hockey town of Villach and Anze Kopitar’s alma mater Jesenice in Slovenia takes 40 minutes through the Karawanks tunnel. When the train tunnel was built, Slovenia was also politically connected to the northern neighbour as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “It’s been kind of a standard in the last few years that way play against them for tournament win. There are no secrets, we know how they play, they know how we play, we just have to be focused on our game from the first till the last minute and be disciplined. That’s the key,” said Slovenian forward Ales Music. “They’re pretty good. They have some young guys right now but I know they want to win against us and we want to win too. Whoever is going to play better defensively will have the chance to win.” Austrian forward Andreas Kristler hopes that his teams progress after a rough start against Korea will continue against Slovenia. “Austria against Slovenia is always a tight game, we have to be ready in any case and we want to reach first place at this tournament,” Kristler said. “Slovenia is a team that gels together well. Like us they have four well-balanced lines. It will be a great and physical game. They are strong on the power play so we have to make sure not to take penalties.” The game will start at 16:30 and will be broadcast live in both countries. Five teams go for silver Not only first place is interesting, but also the second. This in the case that two teams will be promoted to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Normally there will be two promoted teams to the top division and two relegated teams. However, the last IIHF Congress approved one exception in case that the co-hosts of next year, Germany and France, would both finish on bottom in their preliminary-round group in St. Petersburg – in that case there would only be one relegated and one promoted team to protect the co-hosts. However, this scenario would be a historic upset with recently-promoted Hungary in the same group. The last time the Hungarians were ranked better than France was in 1983 and they have never been ranked better than Germany (and West Germany) in any World Championship. Being ranked better than both will naturally be the Hungarians’ goal but it would be a major upset. Before the start of the last day in Katowice five teams can still finish second. Of the six teams only Japan is out of the race and will finish in last place. Italy and Korea will open the last day with their 13:00 game. Italy needs a regulation-time win as well as Slovenia beating Austria in regulation time to reach second place. Korea also needs a regulation-time win and then needs to hope that either Slovenia wins, or that Austria wins in regulation time – but not in overtime or shootout. If Korea wins in overtime or shootout, they still have a chance to win silver if Slovenia beats Austria in regulation time. For Austria and Slovenia it’s all about winning the game and gold to get their tickets to the top division now and without speculation. If they lose, there’s a small chance they could even miss second place – depending on the outcome of the other games. Poland, which will play the last game of the tournament against Japan at 20:00, is as of now still in race for second place. First of all the Poles need a regulation time win against Japan and then also favourable results in the other games as only three of 64 scenarios see Poland in second place. Two are an Italian win against Korea (in regulation time, overtime or shootout) combined with a regulation-time win of Austria against Slovenia, another case is an overtime or shootout win of Italy against Korea combined with a regulation-time win of Slovenia against Austria. It will be an exciting day in Katowice with a happy winner to book the tickets for the top division in Cologne and Paris, and a second-ranked team that can hope for the same reward.

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ROAD TO IIHF MEN´S ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016 FRIENDLY MATCHES Slovakia (OT)4 - 3 Denmark (Score by Period: 1-0, 2-0, 0-3, OT: 1-0) 28th April 2016, h. 18:00 (GMT +2) EURO HOCKEY TOUR 2015/16 SERIE Russia 1 - 3 Finland (Score by Period: 1-1, 0-2, 0-0) 28th April 2016, h. 19:30 (GMT +3)

From 3-0 to 3-3 in 3 minutes against Denmark 10 minutes to go you are leading 3-0 and absolutely outshoot your opponent in each point. but then you suddenly for mysterious reasons absolutely stop to play, and 7 minutes to go it´s 3-3 ..not a hard riddle. yes right, Slovakia ! bunch of loosers. rather we have to skip the world champs this year and not send those ....I don´t even know how to call them... at least we would avoid disgrace and shame.. but now when we are already registred..let´s god help us

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016 Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016 Poland - Austria 1-0

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016 Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016 Slovenia - South Korea 5-1

IIHF Men's Ice Hockey Division I Group A World Championships 2016 Katowice (POL) - 23.04.2016 - 29.04.2016 Japan - Italy 1-3

sure Yes, I agree about Lomnicky´s pants and I actually don´t like those leggings too, but I don´t agree about Richard Varga, those socks are awful, horrible, disaster

wow beautiful

yes except the socks it´s very nice

well, it´s less boring than watching some peoples just walking around a fashion catwalk few seconds