World Championship: Latvia stays alive, horror show for Kazakhstan
Latvia’s playoff hopes are still alive after a shoot-out win over Slovakia. Last year’s bronze medallist can continue to dream of more hardware if it can get a win against the USA on Tuesday. The Americans, meanwhile, handed Kazakhstan a 10-1 thrashing. Kazakhstan has one game left and must avoid a regulation time loss against Poland to remain in the top division. In Group A, Norway is in a similar situation after its 1-4 reverse against an Austrian team that still has hopes of a rare QF run. The evening game in Prague saw Canada edge Switzerland to go top of the Group A standings.
Group B
USA 10 Kazakhstan 1 (4-0, 3-0, 3-1)
An unhappy day for Kazakhstan saw Galym Mambetaliyev’s team on the receiving end of a devastating U.S. performance. A one-sided game in Ostrava saw Johnny Gaudreau set a new national record for points in World Championship play. He had 5 (1+4) points, moving to a career total of 43 (13+30). That’s one better than Patrick Kane’s record.
In the same game, Brock Nelson potted his 19th World Championship goal and ties the Americans’ all-time record. He moves level with Bruce Mather, whose 19 goals came 75 years ago at the 1949 Worlds.
The USA power play was devastating, producing four of the 10 goals – two of them arriving within 10 seconds of the penalty being called.
The only consolation came in the third period when Alikhan Omirbekov redirected an Artyom Korolyov shot to put the Kazakhs on the scoreboard. Now Kazakhstan faces a survival showdown against Poland tomorrow, knowing that anything better than defeat in regulation will secure its top division status.
“The guys know how important tomorrow’s game is,” said Mambetaliyev after Sunday’s shocker. “We were trying to get into the game, but we lost two goals and fell away.
“We couldn’t get into the game at any point. It’s tough to go out and play opponents like this every game. We can’t keep up, they are faster than us.”
Slovakia 2 Latvia 3 SO (0-1, 0-0, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Latvia’s playoff hopes remain alive after a heroic shoot-out win over Slovakia. Defeat to Slovakia would eliminate last year’s bronze medallist and with goalie Kristers Gudlevskis visibly struggling with an injury during the extras, the Latvians got it done.
Gudlevskis’ heroics were almost completed when Dans Locmelis managed to squeeze a shot past Samuel Hlavaj at the other end. And the goalie stopped Juraj Slafkovsky to complete the win. Now Latvia has to defeat the USA in its final game to have a chance of progress.
Earlier, regulation brought a dramatic finish. Tied 1-1, Slovakia got in front for the first time with 1:44 left to play. Slafkovsky was the architect as Peter Cehlarik put Slovakia ahead and – apparently – into the quarter final.
But Latvia doesn’t give up easily: Gudlevskis ran to the bench and the six men found a path to salvation. Oskars Cibulskis banged in a point shot and, with Rihards Bukarts screening Hlavaj, the puck found the target. Hlavej then produced a huge last-gasp save to rob Martins Dzierkals of what would surely have been a winning goal, and the action went into overtime.
Slovakia knew it could secure its playoff place with victory over Latvia tonight and galloped into the first period. There were 26 shots on Kristers Gudlevskis’ net, but no goals. And, against the run of play, Ralfs Freibergs’ opened the scoring at the other end in the 19th minute. After back-to-back heavy losses, that was the boost the Latvians needed with their tournament on the line. That lead lasted until early in the third, and then the drama really started.
Group A
Norway 1 Austria 4 (0-0, 0-3, 1-1)
Austria is dreaming of making the playoffs for the first time since 1994 after victory over Norway. A solid win on Sunday puts the Austrians level with Finland on seven points – and the head-to-head is in favor of Roger Bader’s team. True, the Finns have a game in hand, but if Austria can finish with victory over Great Britain on Tuesday, it might be enough to hand Finland its worst result since 1954.
Norway, meanwhile, is in danger of relegation after 18 top division tournaments. Defeat in regulation against Great Britain tomorrow would send the Norwegians down after today’s loss.
Sunday’s game was settled in the second period. Two goals from Peter Schneider, who also assisted on Dominic Zwerger’s marker, put Austria in complete control. Mats Zuccarello had another assist for Norway as Sander Engebraten pulled a goal back in the third, but Marco Rossi’s empty-netter finished the job.
Switzerland 2 Canada 3 (1-1, 1-2, 0-0)
Canada moved to the top of Group A with a hard-fought win over Switzerland. That sets up a big finish to the group when the Canadians face the Czech host nation on Tuesday with top spot at stake.
The first period saw Dylan Cozens open the scoring for Canada with an early power play goal. However, Switzerland hit back with a power play marker of its own from Kevin Fiala midway through the session.
After the intermission, the Swiss got in front thanks to Romain Loeffel but a minute after that Fiala was ejected from the game for kneeing. That major penalty changed everything. Cozens got his second of the night, Connor Bedard gave away a penalty shot that Sven Andrighetto missed, then Cozens turned provider as Nick Paul made it 3-2 Canada.
In the third, the Canadians played the situation. Chances were kept to a minimum and even a couple of power play chances for Switzerland produced little danger in front of Jordan Binnington’s net.
Main photo: ©Xavier Laine/Getty Images / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru
