Kazakhstan beats Slovakia, Latvia gets third straight W
Kazakhstan took a huge step towards securing its top division status at this year’s IIHF World Championship with a surprise victory over Slovakia on Friday evening.
The shoot-out success for the Kazakhs moves the team to four points and up to sixth in the Group B standings. The team is level with Norway and comfortably clear of winless Slovenia.
It might have been even better for Kazakhstan, but after opening a 3-1 lead on goals from Roman Starchenko, Valery Orekhov and Evgeny Rymarev, things went wrong in the third. Slovakia pulled a goal back through Richard Panik before Pavol Regenda tied it up in the 57th minute. Marek Hrivik had a hat-trick of assists in the game.
In the shoot-out, though, Kazakhstan was impressive, converting all four attempts. Andrei Shutov was beaten just once and pulled off saves to deny Hrivik and Robert Lantosi to seal another valuable win.
“It was a good game,” said Batyrlan Muratov. “We had a bit of luck, we have been training a lot for shoot-outs and we got the win.
“But we need to try to play to the very end. We were up 3-1 here but we couldn’t finish it in regulation.”
Latvia edged its third successive victory in Riga, keeping the co-host on course for a quarter-final spot. Today’s game ended in a 3-2 victory over Slovenia with goals from the Bukarts brothers, Roberts and Rihards, leading the way. Kaspars Daugavins was also on target in a hard-fought game against the only team in the competition still without a point.
Team captain Daugavins is aware that there is little margin for error with two games left and a playoff spot available.
“We have to keep winning but we know it’s a tough task,” Daugavins said about chasing down a quarter-final spot. “We got a big three points today and another big game tomorrow. We just want to give ourselves a chance going into the last game, and then you never know.”
In Tampere, Finland hit form at last with a 7-1 demolition of Hungary. However, the host nation had to wait until the third period to see off the hard-working Hungarians. It was 2-1 at the second intermission on goals from Mikko Lehtonen and Kaapo Kakko, but the final frame turned into a rout with five unanswered goals.
Teemu Hartikainen was relieved to see a performance that reflected the defending champion’s potential. “We started to see what Finland is capable of,” he said. “We were struggling a bit with scoring and trying to figure out our line-ups and how to play together.
“A lot of the guys got their first goals in this tournament and that’s going to be huge for us going forward.”
The evening game saw Germany defeat Austria 4-2 and remain on track for a playoff place.
Main photo: Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru
