Four games were played in the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championships yesterday and these are the results:
United States 3-0 Slovakia
Finland 1-4 Canada
Czech Republic 3-2 Denmark (overtime)
Sweden 3-2 Russia
Analysis of the fourth day:
While United States and Canada is steamrolling their opponents in group A, group B is tighter. We’re looking forward to the groupfinal between the both north-atlantic teams at new years eve.
Sweden managed to beat Russia after a dramatic third period. The swedes took the lead after the first period while Russia came back in the second period, scoring the equalizer. In the beginning of the third Russia’s Lechenko scored his second goal of the game which also Sweden’s Forsling did three minutes later. With 13 minutes left of the final period the game was a tie. Now a major-drama was unfolded with Russia almost getting the game-leading goal which led to the puck dancing on the goal-line before Swedish goalkeeper Söderström managed to cover it. The situation had to be reviewed by the goal-judge and it probably wasn’t an easy task since the puck almost crossed the goal-line twice. However, the result was a wash-out from the referee: no goal. Instead Sweden could score 3-2 a minute later. Hockey logic! The swedes managed to hold out the remainder of the period and is now heading towards the group win. That means they probably will meet Finland in the quarterfinal, a classic nordic rivalry!
Denmark has the chance to reach the quarterfinal at the expense of Czech Republic or Switzerland.
Day five:
Slovakia vs Germany
Switzerland vs Denmark
Slovakia should beat Germany while both Switzerland and Denmark have something to fight for in their game. It’s an interesting match-up since both teams rely on counterattacks, which works against ”better” teams but seldom on teams that have less puck-possession.
