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World Championships - Saturday games

Sunday, 14th May 2006

First up today is the relegation round games between Kazakhstan and Slovenia and Italy and Denmark with a win a must for all four teams.

KAZAKHSTAN V SLOVENIA

These two teams have really disappointed in the championships and are both struggling. Slovenia have not shown any of the qualities they had last time around and Kazakhstan have flattered to deceive all week.
Kazakhstan took the lead on 6:09 with a goal from Starchenko assisted by Belyayev and just over a minute later on 7:48 increased that to 2-0 through Pchelyakov assisted Shafranov. Slovenia huffed and puffed but really don’t look like getting anything out of this game. End of the 1st and its 2-0 to Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan continue to dominate and they went 3-0 up on 27:10 on the powerplay. Blokhin fed Pchelyakov on the left and a beautiful cross ice pass found Litvinenko totally free on the left of the crease to score. 29:56 and the game is over as a contest with a 4th goal. Starchenko from Trochshinskiy and Belyayev.  Krasnosblabotsev made it 5-0 on 32:1 when he took a pass from Zarzhitskiy and skated into the zone, beat 2 defenders and flashed an unstoppable shot past Kristan. 5-0 and the Slovenians are shell shocked. End of the period and 5-0 to Kazakhstan. Shot count is 20-17 to the Kazaks but they have scored 5 of theirs.

Third period and Kazakhstan took their foot off the pedal and took 6 minor penalties just defending their lead. Slovenia’s frustration at being unable to break them down blew at 58:50 when Robar got 5 plus game for excessive roughness. As Kazakhstan came out on the break, he pushed the forward from behind and he hit his head on the pipes. Game ended with Kazakhstan comfortable 5-0 winners and gives them hope of avoiding relegation. Slovenia need to find something in their last game or they will be in Pool B next year.


ITALY V DENMARK

Winner of this game can almost certainly look forward to a trip to Russia for next years Pool A games.
Denmark took the lead on 4:16 with an unassisted goal from Mads Boedker. The rest of the period was littered by penalties and not a lot else. End of 1st  Italy 0-1 Kazakhstan.

Second period much the same as the first with far too many penalties. Then again its not surprising with Rick Looker refereeing. He is the guy that single-handedly ruined the Canada v Latvia game( IMHO of course)
Denmark went 2-0 up on the powerplay on 37:19 with a goal fromKim Staal assisted by Nielsen and Green. End of 2nd and 2-0 to Denmark. 14mins of penalties in the second period.

Quiet 3rd period with Denmark skating comfortably to the win.
Denmark went 3-0 up after 49:46 with a goal from Frans Neilsen. Then Ramoser of Italy went for 5 plus game for spearing. Denmark took advantage on 55:23 with a 4th goal. Frans Nielsen again with another assist by Kim Staal. Italy’s discipline continued to deteriorate and at 59:50 De Bettin picked up a 2 plus 10 for a check from behind. Immediately from the face off Damgaard scored assisted Nielsen to make it 5-0. That was it for the scoring and a comfortable 5-0 win for Denmark in their quest to hold on to Pool A status.


USA V LATVIA

Latvia again got themselves into penalty trouble in the first period as they took 2 minors in the first 4 minutes. This time the penalty kill unit fared much better than they did against Canada and kept the score at 0-0 in a fairly even 1st period.

USA took the lead after 20:59 as Malone tipped a shot from the point high over Naumov’s shoulder into the net. Assists to Cullen and Brown.
The home crowd were still behind their team and the stadium erupted just 73 seconds later when USA turned the puck over and Darzins fired a low shot through the five hole of the American goalie. The middle part of the period passed with few chances for either side. USA took the lead on their first powerplay of the period as Dustin Brown found himself in front of the net and pushed the puck past Naumovs. Timed at 34:39. Just seconds later it could have been 3-1 as a huge slapshot from Komisarek hit both posts and nestled under Naumovs. No more scoring and the period ended with USA 2-1 in front.

At 41:00 the crowd lifted the roof as Daugavins swept his way into the American zone and dropped a lovely pass to Semjonovs who wristed the puck past Anderson for the equaliser. The crowd euphoria lasted only 90 seconds as O’Sullivan hit a one timer from the blue line to put USA back in front. Timed at 42:27 assisted by Mark Cullen. At 49:50 Ryan Sutter put the game beyond Latvia with a low shot from the right. That was it for the scoring and a hard worked, deserved win for USA by 4-2.
This result eliminated Latvia from the quarter final line up.


BELARUS V UKRAINE

Belarus outplayed Ukraine in every department to record a huge 9-1 win in the nights other game. Once again, Ukraine, the most penalised team in the competition, fell foul of penalty trouble and lost 4 powerplay goals, two of which were on 5 on 3 situations. Mikhail Grabovsky of the Canadiens scored 3 goals and Skabelka had a goal and 5 assists in the game. Grabovsky now ties Crosby at the top of the scoring charts.
This result eliminates Ukraine and gives Belarus an outside chance of making the last 8.


In Group E Canada, Finland Czech Republic and USA have already qualified and are playing the last two fixtures for positioning. Latvia cannot now reach 4th place and Norway , even if they win their last game can only tie USA and Czech Republic but having lost to them both would be out on the head to head analysis. In Group F Ukraine are eliminated and it is looking like Russia Sweden and Switzerland will qualify and the Belarus v Slovakia game will decide the 4th spot.

More tomorrow

Tambo

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