World Championship: Bad loss for Kazakhstan, Czechs too good for Austria

An 8-2 drubbing against Germany left Kazakhstan looking anxiously at a relegation battle in its World Championship campaign. After an opening win, the Kazakhs have now lost four in a row and will likely need to defeat Poland to guarantee safety. The Poles, meanwhile, lost to team USA on Friday evening. In Group A, the Czechs beat Austria 4-0 to go top of the standings. Denmark edged a 4-3 verdict over Great Britain, which is still seeking its first point.

Group B

Germany 8 Kazakhstan 2 (2-1, 3-0, 3-1)

Kazakhstan fell to a fourth loss at the IIHF World Championship after a disastrous start to its game against Germany. After a battling performance against a powerful Swedish team yesterday, the Kazakhs were caught napping when the Germans scored twice inside three minutes to take control of the game.

“We had a really bad start,” admitted Tamirlan Gaitamirov. “We can’t be playing like this, we need wins. Of course we’re frustrated. We have to do something about it, come out better.”

To Kazakhstan’s credit, they did something about it in that first period. Roman Starchenko converted the first power play of the game to halve the deficit in the ninth minute and the shot count was even through 20 minutes.

But after the intermission the Kazakhs were sluggish again and Germany potted a third just 82 seconds into the middle frame. That was the killer blow, and Kazakhstan never recovered. JJ Peterka claimed that tally, then the first of Lukas Reichel’s two goals opened an unbridgeable 4-1 lead.

The Germans continued to dominate in the third, running up a painful scoreline as Kazakhstan tired. Artyom Korolyov’s first World Championship goal was the only consolation on a bleak day.

“Defensively we need to play with a little more patience,” Gaitamirov added, looking ahead to the crucial clash with Poland on Monday, a game likely to determine who remains in the top division for another year. “And we need to score our chances. We have chances but we don’t score enough.”

Poland 1 USA 4 (0-0, 0-2, 1-2)

American born goalie John Murray almost singlehandedly defied his homeland, making 53 saves to keep Poland alive in this mismatch.

Murray has been based in Poland for a decade, establishing himself on the national team in that time, and tonight was the biggest game of his career. However, despite his brave performance, the Poles could not find an upset against an American team that is beginning to find some form after a slow start in Ostrava.

The first period was goalless and Poland was good value for its tie at the intermission. After that, though, the USA took control. In the second period, 25 American shots brought goals for Michael Kesselring and Brady Tkachuk. It was a similar story in the third, with two more goals from Cole Caufield. Poland got a consolation from Grzegorz Pasiut.

Group A

Great Britain 3 Denmark 4 (2-2, 1-1, 0-1)

A power play goal midway through the third period earned Denmark a tight verdict and leaves Britain still seeking its first victory in Prague.

The Brits had failed to score in two games, but Liam Kirk’s wraparound effort put that right early in the first period. That kickstarted an entertaining game between two of the tournament outsiders. The lead changed hands and the teams went to the intermission tied at 1-1.

The second period was also close: Denmark grabbed the early lead, but Britain worked back into the game to tie it late on.

However, when Evan Mosey sat for tripping – a call that greatly displeased the British fans in the arena – Denmark took advantage. Christian Wejse got his team’s second power play goal of the night and that proved enough. GB’s late storm could not find a way past Dichow, piling up the pressure ahead of crunch games against Norway and Austria.

Czech Republic 4 Austria 0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0)

The Czechs moved to the top of Group A with a shut-out win over surprise package Austria. After impressive performances against Canada and Finland, Austria ran out of a bit of steam in this game, failing to score for the first time in the tournament.

Roared on by a 17,000-strong Prague crowd the host nation dominated the first period. But it took a penalty shot in the last minute to solve David Madlener in the Austrian net: Ondrej Kase went to the top shelf to open the scoring.

Austria played well in the middle frame, threatening to tie the game. But a well-worked Czech power play goal saw Dominik Kubalik double the lead before Jakub Flek added a third. When David Tomasek made it 4-0 90 seconds into the final frame, the bell was chiming midnight for Austria’s Cinderella sequence and the host nation closed out the win.

Main photo: PressFocus/MB Media / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru