Features

 

 

 

The tournament favourites ended their first round with a convincing win over USA, although they struggled in the first period against a US team who seemed out to prove a point. At last we had a proper competitive game of hockey, plenty of hits, end-to-end action and a goalie who once again showed he is the best in the world by a country mile.

 

The first period again showed up some Canadian frailties as the US took the game to them only to meet the great Martin Brodeur in top form and the game was all square at 0-0 after 20 mins.

 

The game changed dramatically after only 51 seconds of the second period when the outstanding Rick Nash turned and shot at the glove side of DiPietro. The goalie surprisingly kicked the rebound straight back at him and the resultant shot powered into the net for the go ahead goal. US equalised at 25.16 when Mike Knuble nutmegged Jovanovski and shot the puck through the legs of Brodeur to score. Brodeur then took it on himself to provide most of the entertainment for the rest of the period as he took full advantage of the lack of a two line pass rule to distribute the puck on numerous occasions to the far blue line completely catching the US rearguard unprepared. At 31.29 the Canadians took the lead on a 4 on 4 passage of play, again through Rick Nash who blazed down the right wing on a pass from Boyle and roofed a superb shot as DiPietro attempted the poke check. Nash is definitely turning into the star of the tournament with his 6^th goal of the competition so far.

 

The third was a typical hard-hitting North American game of hockey with checks ferociously finished off and both sets of forward crashing the net. Canada got the insurance goal at 52.52 on the power play. Jovanovski passed to Thornton at the red line and the latter placed the puck through the legs of DiPietro for 3-1. This finished off US and the game petered out with both teams accepting their fate.

 

 

 

Latvia duly dispatched Slovenia to consolidate 3^rd in the group and a place in the next stage. The completely dominated the game and took the lead at 12.17 on the power play as Cipulis blasted a shot off a Slovenian stick for the first goal of the game.

 

Latvia went further ahead on 25.51 when Cipruss passed in front of Tribuncovs who deflected the puck off Glaber, picked up his own rebound and scored. Slovenia finally scored their first goal in151.55 mins when Glicic pounced on an Irbe mistake, raced around behind the net and put the puck into the right hand side with Irbe posted missing in action.

 

Slovenia ran out of legs in the third and Latvia totally controlled the game, but did not add to the score sheet until 59.35 when Ankipans scored an empty netter.

 

Group Preliminary B

R	Team	GP	W	T	L	GF:GA	GDF	PTS
1	CAN	3	3	0	0	17:5	12	6
2	USA	3	2	0	1	11:4	7	4
3	LAT	3	1	0	2	8:10	-2	2
4	SLO	3	0	0	3	1:18	-17	0

 

 

Canada will take 6 points on to the next stage and will next meet Sweden on Saturday. USA and Latvia also move on and Slovenia will have to improve in the relegation round if they are to hold on to their elite status.

 

 

 

The Czechs continued their winning ways, again without impressing on the offensive side of the game. Icing without Jagr, who decided to sit this one out and rest his injury, they just did enough to obtain the points to take the maximum on to the next round. The only goal of the game came at 30.44 when Hemsky shot directly from a face of to trickle the puck behind the impressive Kolesnik.

The Ukrainian goalie was again impressive saving 38 shots and they will be tricky opponents in the next round. Slovakia next for the Czechs and they will need to up the offence against Hossa and Gaborik’s team to fulfil their second top ranking.

 

 

 

Switzerland took the lead at 5.39 as Jochen Hecht sat out an interference penalty through a solo effort from Ruthermann as he skated into the zone, wristing a shot over the glove side of German goalie Jonas. After chances at both ends, the Germans equalised through Furchner who blasted a low shot past Gerber at 15.10. That ended the scoring for the 1^st period.

 

With Germany needing 2 more goals to qualify for the next round, they had to open the game up and paid the penalty after 28.28 as Rutheman found Pluss wide open on the right post. He even fanned on the shot but still had enough on the puck to force it over the goal line for the 2-1 lead. Things got worse for Germany when Benda was assessed a 5 plus game for a high stick offence, which cut the lip of Flavian Conne with 9 mins of the second period left.  End of 2 and a 2-1 lead for the Swiss.

 

 

Switzerland put the game out of reach at 48.33 with a goal through the five hole of Jonas by Patrick Fischer. It became 4-1 at 52.00 when Pluss scored his second power play goal of the evening when he picked up a rebound off the backboard and slotted the net passed the despairing Jonas.

Germany tried one last throw of the dice at 52.38 when Head Coach Poss pulled the goaltender to give themselves a 6 on 4 on the power play. This backfired when Forster scored into the empty net, shorthanded from his own zone at 52.55.

 

Although the score flattered Switzerland a little, there is no doubt that Germany have become the shock team of the tournament for all the wrong reasons and go into the relegation round for the first time since 2001. This will give them a rematch with archrivals Austria on Saturday.

 

 

Group Preliminary D

R	Team	GP	W	T	L	GF:GA	GDF	PTS
1	CZE	3	3	0	0	6:1	5	6
2	SUI	3	2	0	1	8:5	3	4
3	KAZ	3	1	0	2	3:4	-1	2
4	GER	3	0	0	3	2:9	-7	0

 

 

Czech Republic, Switzerland and Kazakhstan move on to the qualifying round and a very disappointing Germany must pick up at least 2 wins in the relegation round to keep their place in the World’s top group.

 

 

So to the next stage, qualifying round and relegation round.  The groups stand as follows before start of play on Friday.

 

 

 

Each team now has 3 games to play against teams they have not yet met in the competition, having brought their points gained in the preliminary round with them. Top 4 in each group will qualify for the knockout quarterfinals.

 

The relegation round is a round robin with each team playing 3 games and the top two teams will retain their elite status and the bottom two will be relegated.

 

Group Relegation G

R	Team	GP	W	T	L	GF:GA	GDF	PTS
1	AUT	0	0	0	0	0:0	0	0
2	DEN	0	0	0	0	0:0	0	0
3	GER	0	0	0	0	0:0	0	0
4	SLO	0	0	0	0	0:0	0	0

 

 

That’s it for now, more over the weekend