Italy – Latvia 1:2 (1:1; 0:0; 0:1)
Cologne // Newcomer narrowly misses out on points
Cologne's Lanxxess Arena, which was filled with 6.332 visitors, was clearly dominated by the Latvian people dressed in red and white Fans controlled. Not just in terms of color, but above all through the loud support of the drums and shouts of 'Latvia, Latvia'.
Latvia, which started the tournament with two wins, went into the game against the southern Europeans as clear favorites. The surprise was even greater when the Italians took the lead through Marco Insam after 3:38. He capped off a quick Azzurri advance with a shot into the top right corner. It took until the 13th minute of the game when Andris Dzerins used the only penalty time of the first third to equalize. The players went into the break with this score.
The middle period ended goalless, although, as in the first third, the Italians had the upper hand with 10:6 shots - but were unable to take advantage of it.
The last period began with a penalty against Latvia, but this was not used either - only a harmless shot found its way on goal. In contrast to the Latvian players, who now tried with all their might to score the winning goal. The 13th shot of the period decided the game 79 seconds before the end. Dzerins shot again and the puck ended up in the net. Latvia has now won its 3rd match and is ahead of Russia at the top of Group A (9 points).
Ronalds Kenins, Latvia's striker, spoke after the game of a deserved victory: "No, I think we deserved the win after all. We knew that the Italians put a lot of emphasis on defence. We knew that we had to play physically, but we didn't do that well in the first 40 minutes. Then we scored one more goal and that was the victory! We have to forget this game now and prepare for the next match on Thursday."
Tore: 1 : 0 (3:38) Insam; 1:1 (12:09) Dzerins {PP}; 1:2 (58:41) Dzerins
shots on goal: 21 : 24 (8 : 5; 10 : 6; 3 : 13)
Punish:2:6
spectator: 6332
Slovakia – Denmark 3:4 (0:1; 0:2; 3-0; 0:0; 0:1)
Cologne // Danes lose a point
The Danes, last in the table (no points), with three players in North America (Nikolaj Ehlers / Winnipeg Jets, Mikkel Aargaard / Stockton Heat - AHL, Patrick Russel / Bakersfield Condors - AHL) in the squad, met sixth in the table this evening , Slovakia. For the first time in their history, the Eastern Europeans do not have an NHL player in their squad, but they do have a pair of brothers in Julius and Libor Hudacek.
In front of 4454 spectators, in what was now the 12th game in the LANXESS arena in Cologne, two teams met on equal terms. In the first half of the game the game was plodding along until a power play put the Danes in trouble. As soon as the penalty had expired, the Slovaks took a penalty time and thus gave the Scandinavians the advantage. The Danes were more effective, attacked the goal guarded by Julius Hudacek and scored the 1-0 lead from half-right through Nichlas Hardt, who uncompromisingly shot an assist from Frederik Storm under the crossbar.
The Slovaks pushed for an equalizer, but when Sebastian Dahm reached Denmark's goal, it was the end of the game. The game was played openly and intensively by both sides. In the 25th minute there was a quick attack by the Danes. Patrick Russell only had to point his stick at Oliver Lauridsen's pass and it was 2-0 for the Danes playing in red. The Slovaks threw everything forward, but it backfired! 2,4 seconds before the end of the second period, Morten Poulsen converted a counterattack to take the lead 3-0.
The final third began with the expected rebellion from the Eastern Europeans, who scored the next goal after 1:22 minutes. Martin Gernat gave his colors hope again after the 1:3. The race to catch up was underway. 6:05 had been played in the final period and the score was only 2:3. Mario Bliznak shot the puck from a central position into the bottom right corner. The clock showed 51:53 when the equalizer fell. Denmark, weakened by a 2 + 2 penalty, had to accept the goal from Michel Miklik after a few seconds. There was great excitement in the 55th minute - Denmark took the lead again while outnumbered - but after consulting the video evidence, the decision was “No Goal!” because the goal was off the anchor when the puck crossed the line. The last part of the game was over and the five-minute overtime was on – 3 against 3. But this didn't bring a decision either. The penalty shootout had to decide whether to win or lose. And the captain of the Danes was the only one of the 14 shooters to convert to victory for the Northern Europeans!
Gates: 0:1 (16:20) Hardt {PP}; 0:2 (24:46) Russell; 0:3 (39:57) Poulsen; 1:3 (41:22) Gernat; 2:3 (46:05) Bliznak {PP}; 3:3 (51:53} Miklik {PP}; 3:4 Green (PS)
Text: Ivo Jaschick