World Championship: Latvia misses out, Finland survives scare
The final day of group stage play saw Latvia fall short of a playoff place. A 3-6 loss against Team USA left the Latvians in fifth in Group B. Finland, in danger of missing out for the first time since playoffs were introduced, avoided any drama after Austria blew its chance with defeat against Great Britain. The quarter-finals on Thursday will see two games in Prague: Canada vs Slovakia, and Czech Republic vs USA. In Ostrava, Sweden faces Finland and Switzerland takes on Germany.
Group B
Latvia 3 USA 6 (0-2, 1-1, 2-3)
The USA ended Latvia’s playoff hopes with victory on the final day of group play in Ostrava. After a shoot-out win over Slovakia in the previous game, Harijs Vitolins’ team still had a chance of sneaking into the last eight with a regulation time success against the Americans.
However, team USA has improved steadily through this tournament and boasts the most productive offense of the preliminary round. Five more goals today took the tally to 39 in seven games.
Brady Tkachuk wasted no time in opening the scoring: he struck on 1:23, assisted by Cole Caufield who went on to pile up 4 (2+2) points in the game. Caufield had another helper as Zach Werenski doubled the lead before the intermission.
Caufield scored the third early in the middle frame, but Renars Krastenbergs immediately got one back for Latvia.
Scoring leader Matt Boldy made it 4-1 at the start of the third period, but Latvia hauled itself right back into the game with strikes from Eduards Tralmaks and Roberts Mamcics. There were just 16 seconds between those goals and the jittery Americans called a time-out. That pause calmed some nerves, and Caufield’s second of the night gave the USA an unassailable lead. Joel Farrabee’s empty-netter completed the scoring and moved the Americans to second in the group.
"Obviously, we were expecting to be in a quarter-final. I’m just proud of the guys, we never gave up," said Latvian captain Kaspars Daugavins. "We had some tough situations in this tournament, three back-to-back games, but we always kept battling and, all the way to the last day, we gave ourselves a chance."
Latvia takes ninth place in the final standings, with Kazakhstan 12th.
France 3 Germany 6 (1-1, 2-3, 0-2)
It took the Germans some time to subdue France, but a goal flurry in the second period did the job. Stephane Da Costa did not feature for the French in this game.
In the first half of the action, France led three times. However, Germany scored twice in 22 seconds to move ahead in the 32nd minute. The start of the third brought two more quick goals as Wojciech Stachowiak potted his second of the day before Lukas Reichel completed the scoring. Germany finished third in Group B, and will face Switzerland in the quarters.
Sweden 6 Slovakia 1 (1-0, 3-0, 2-1)
This game meant nothing for the tournament standings. Sweden was already assured of top spot and will remain in Ostrava to play Finland in the quarter-final. Slovakia was locked into fourth and head to face the Canadians in Prague.
However, the Tre Kronor had a perfect 6-0 sequence to protect, while inconsistent Slovakia was looking to bounce back from a shoot-out loss to Latvia in the previous game.
The Swedes, so impressive over the past 10 days, delivered once again. An early power play goal from Lucas Raymond got things started. The second period produced three unanswered goals, with Erik Karlsson getting a goal and an assist.
Slovakia was seldom competitive and allowed two more goals to Joel Eriksson Ek in the third. Michal Ivan potted the Slovak consolation.
Group A
Austria 2 Great Britain 4 (0-0, 1-1, 1-3)
Relegated GB shattered Austria’s dreams of a first quarter-final in 30 years by picking up its first points of the championship. The Austrians could have beaten Finland to fourth place with a regulation win here and a Finnish loss against Switzerland in the evening game.
That seemed possible when Clemens Unterweger’s slapshot put Austria 1-0 up at the start of the second period. But GB got two minutes of five-on-three power play and Ben O’Connor tied the game.
After that, Austria lost composure. Britain, with the pressure off, played some of its best hockey in Prague. Another power play at the start of the third saw Brett Perlini make it 2-1, and Evan Mosey – pressed into service as an emergency forward in the absence of Liam Kirk – added a third. Robert Dowd found the empty net before Mario Huber potted a late Austrian consolation.
Canada 4 Czech Republic 3 OT (0-0, 0-0, 3-3, 1-0)
The Canadians clinched top spot in Group A and a quarter-final match-up with Slovakia after a dramatic finish against the host nation.
For two periods of this hotly anticipated clash, the teams cancelled each other out. In the third, though, it kicked off early. Dylan Cozens put Canada up with a power play goal, while the Czechs seemed to struggle after separating the productive Roman Cervenka – Lukas Sedlak partnership to put the captain with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, airlifted in following Boston’s Stanley Cup exit.
Canada improved its lead to 3-1, but the Czechs rejigged their lines and Cervenka conjured a fightback. A 57th-minute power play saw the home team gamble with a six-on-four set-up and Cervenka assisted on Ondrej Palat’s goal. Then, with the net empty once again, the captain scored himself to force overtime.
A Czech power play seemed to hand the initiative to the host, but Cozens had other ideas and settled the outcome with a shorthanded goal. Canada stays in Prague to face Slovakia, the Czechs will welcome the USA to the capital.
Finland 1 Switzerland 3 (0-0, 1-2, 0-1)
The big result for Finland came in the early game, when Austria loss ensured there was nothing riding on the result of this one. Jukka Jalonen’s men were locked into fourth place and a cross-border battle with Sweden in Ostrava in the last eight.
Switzerland would also be on its travels in the next round: even a second place finish would not keep it in Prague as the Czech host was destined to stay there regardless of its tournament position. However, a win would see the Swiss face Germany rather than the USA.
After a goalless first period, the Swiss opened a 2-0 lead thanks to Kevin Fiala. He scored the opener then added an assist as Andreas Glasner’s 161 kph slapshot doubled the advantage. Finland had a goal ruled out on a bench challenge for offside and struggled to threaten until its first power play of the game. Then Markus Granlund set up Jere Innala to make it 1-2 at the second intermission.
That could not spark the Finnish offense, though, and Switzerland eased through the third period with few alarms. Fiala added a third goal, and Finland’s problems intensified when an angry retaliation from Granlund saw him ejected from the game and – possibly – out of the QF against Sweden.
Main photo: RvS.Media/Monika Majer / Getty Sport / GettyImages.ru
