Features

Groups A and C completed their preliminary round fixtures today with big wins for Sweden and Slovakia.

 

 

Sweden topped group C with a convincing 5-1 win over arch rivals Finland in the day’s top game.

 

With only 50 secs gone, Anti- Jussi Niemi fired a high drive over Lunqvist’s glove side for the lead to send the majority of fans in the 6,200 crowd into a frenzy, not to mention a roar in the Tambo household. Just over a minute later at 2.17 that euphoria had transferred to the other half of the crowd as Niklas Kronvall got the puck in close and slid the puck under Norrena to tie the game at 1-1. Finland pressed hard and had the better of play with Lundqvist making up for his early error with several good saves. Best of the early chances in the first 10 mins though went to Samuel Pahlsson who hit the keeper with a good shot on the breakaway. The period then turned into a tit for tat power play situation and Sweden took advantage of one of them at 16.03 as a shot from the point was kicked out by Norenna straight on to the tape of Ronnie Sundin, who slid the puck home to give the Swedes a slightly deserved 2-1 lead at the end of 1.

 

Second period was a tighter affair but Sweden gradually took control and sloppy play by the Finnish defence allowed Mattias Weinhandl to steal the puck, creating a 2 on 1 in close. He slid the biscuit over to Hedstrom who scored easily at 27.11 for the insurance goal.  Sweden went further ahead at 34.40 as a mistake by Norren allowed a slow shot from Pahlsson to trickle between his pads for 4-1. The Swedish fans were ecstatic and yours truly went for a beer. After this goal Sweden were happy to just dump the puck and play one man deep and four back. Boring but effective hockey at this stage. End of 2 and a comfortable 4-1 lead for the Swedes.

 

Much of the same from Sweden in the third as they frustrated the Finns preventing any rushes by keeping them outside the zone at every opportunity. Plenty of slashes, hooks and interference penalties, five to the Finns, all comfortably killed by an increasingly impressive Swedish side.  The last mark of the night came at 58.18 with Hedstrom’s second of the night as Norenna played the puck to one of his D men. Hedstrom put a good check in and the puck hit off the Swede’s skate into the empty net. No luck for the Finns but I suppose the Swedes had deserved all that came to them tonight.

 

Overall a good, psychological win for Sweden over their rivals and this leaves them top of the group and a game on Saturday night against the winner of the Canada v USA game in the next phase. Finland will take on the loser of this game and must up their game, especially the power play if they are to progress to the knock out stages.

 

 

 

With the Danes only needing a tie to go through to the next round this game was a stuffy, hard fought game with the Danish game plan seeming to be to sit back and wait for the usual glut of Ukrainian misdemeanours and take advantage of the power plays. This did not materialise and the first period was a turgid affair and goal less at the end of 20 mins

 

It had to happen eventually and at 28.10 Timchenko went for hooking and after moving the puck comfortably Lasse Degn scored at 28.28 to give the Danes hope.

 

Peter Hirsch in the Danish goal was having a good game and stopped a fair few Ukrainian chances including good saves from Savenko and Tsyrul.  However it could not last forever and great work behind the goal by Varlamov ended up with him spotting a gap at the goalie’s left post and shot the puck off Hirsch’s skate for the equaliser at 34.57.

 

Much of the third period was spent in the Danish zone without any real clear-cut chances. This changed at 57.48 as Varlamov got his second goal of the tournament with assists from Bobrovnikov and Semichenko to put the Ukrainians through and leave the Danes crestfallen.

 

The game ended in controversy as the ref washed out a mark by Morten Green as time ran out for a man in the crease. Denmark complained that although he was in the crease he was not interfering and the goal should have stood.

 

 

Group Preliminary C

R	Team	GP	W	T	L	GF:GA	GDF	PTS
1	SWE	3	3	0	0	15:3	12	6
2	FIN	3	2	0	1	7:7	0	4
3	UKR	3	1	0	2	5:8	-3	2
4	DEN	3	0	0	3	2:11	-9	0

 

 

Group C finished with Sweden comfortably on top but with the results going as expected, the second round also awaits Finland and Ukraine with a very disappointing Denmark off to the relegation round to fight for their place in the top group.

 

 

 

Belarus preparation for this game could not have been worse as news came out of the suspension of young forward Tsifamel Filin due to a doping infraction. A statement from the Ukrainian camp said that they “ would educate the player, not turn our back on him”

 

The first period was a high tempo affair and even though the Russians outshoot their opponents 14-3, Mezin was having another outstanding game in the Belarus net.

 

Mezin continued to be the star of the game in the third with good saves from Malkin, Ryazantsev and Datsyuk to keep the game close. However, he was beaten at 28.22 when Kharitonov came in fromt of the net, taking a pass across the crease from Vyshedkevich to open the scoring.

 

Much of the same in the third kept the score to one goal, thus keeping the hope that they could steal something from the game. The Russians got their insurance goal at 41.40 when a Vyshedkevich slapped a shot from the point that deflected over a kneeling Mezin.  Belarus pulled Mezin for the last 1.20 but couldn’t get a shot away as the Russians closed out the game to protect the shut out for Zyvagin.

 

 

 

 

The Slovaks went into this game knowing they had to beat the hosts by 4 goals to top the group. Unfortunately for the home crowd, Austria never looked like stopping them.

 

Slovakia dominated right from the face off and took the lead at 2.44 when Marian Gaborik scored his third of the tournament when he skated around the net and sent in a low screened shot nearside to make it 1-0.  Despite constant pressure, this was the only goal of a penalty littered first period.

 

Once again Slovakia came out strong at the beginning of a period and Palffy scored at 21.06, going top shelf on the backhand. At 13.52 the strong Slovaks made it 3-0 on a power play goal from Visnovsky who one timed a vicious low slapshot from a pass by Palffy.

 

Much of the same in the third as Austria’s frustration took effect and numerous penalties resulted in more goals for Slovakia. Another quick goal at the start of the period ( 41.56) by Hossa as he finished of a give and go with Demitra through the five hole to make it 4-0. Austria got one back on 48.08 through Unterluggauer with a shot from the point on the power play. The Slovaks pressure was relentless and their second PP goal came on 50.28 with a goal from defenseman Martin Strbak.

Slovakia ended the period with a riot of 3 goals in a 43 second stint from 55.04.Handzus, Strbak and Palffy all marking.  This win puts Slovakia through as group leaders and Austria must fight in the relegation round for the first time since 2000.

 

Group Preliminary A

R	Team	GP	W	T	L	GF:GA	GDF	PTS
1	SVK	3	2	1	0	13:5	8	5
2	RUS	3	2	1	0	9:5	4	5
3	BLR	3	1	0	2	6:4	2	2
4	AUT	3	0	0	3	3:17	-14	0

 

No surprises in this group, taking into account Austria’s very poor showing and as predicted Belarus caught them on an off week to secure the third qualifying spot.

 

Thursdays games see the match up most fans over here have been waiting for with Canada playing USA for top spot in group B. Latvia should be too strong for Slovenia and clinch the third spot in this group. In group D, the Czechs again should be too good for Kazakhstan and the Germany v Switzerland game is another one to watch with any 2 from 3 qualifying from this group along with the Czechs.

 

 

• The 16 teams are divided into four groups in the Preliminary Round.
• After a single round-robin series in each group, the top three teams from each group advance to the Qualification Round while the fourth placed team in each group moves to the Relegation Round.
• The Qualification Round consists of two groups with six teams in each, playing a single round robin series. These teams carry forward the points gained in the Preliminary Round with the teams that they have played and advance with. Teams, which have played in the Preliminary Round, do not meet again in the Qualification Round.
• At the conclusion of the Qualification Round, the top four teams in each group play crossover Quarter Finals against teams from the other group of the Qualification Round.
• In the Quarter Finals, the first placed team in one group plays the fourth placed team in the other group, while the second placed team in one group plays the third placed team in the other group, etc. The winning teams in the Quarter Finals advance to the Semi Finals.
• The winning teams of the two Semi Final match-ups advance to play in the Gold Medal Game while the Semi Final losing teams play in the Bronze Medal Game.

• The four teams participating in the Relegation Round play a single round robin series. The two teams which finish first and second at the conclusion of this round will be promoted to the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Latvia, while the teams which finish third and fourth are relegated to Division I.
• Since Riga, Latvia is the host of the 2006 IIHF World Championship, the Latvian team cannot be relegated. Should Latvia finish 3rd or 4th in the Relegation Round, the 2nd place team is relegated

• If two teams are tied on equality of points in the standings, the following tie breaking criteria applies:

• If three or more teams have the same number of points in the group, then their ranking shall be determined by higher number of points in a special standing composed just from the results of their head-to-head (mutual) games. If the number of points is equal between the three or more teams in this special standing just from the results of their head-to-head (mutual) games, than the same tie breaking criteria as above applies.

• In case of a tie at the conclusion of regulation time in a Quarter Final, Semi Final and Bronze Medal Game, there will be a 10-minute sudden death overtime period played. In the Gold Medal game there will be a 20-minute sudden death overtime period. The team, which scores a goal during this period is declared winner.
• All Sudden Death Overtime periods are played with four skaters on four.
• In case no goal is scored during the Sudden Death Overtime, there will be Game Winning Shot (GWS) competition (“penalty shoot-out”). Each team must select five shooters to compete in the GWS competition. If the score is still tied after the teams have had five attempts each, the teams continue to shoot in pairings until the shooter of one team misses and the shooter of the other team scores.

 

See you tomorrow!