Estonian penalties helped Norway to win

Willy Fauskanger scored the 1-0 lead to Norway, assisted by the WFC Veteran, Raymond Evensen. Evensen has participated in all European and World Championships where Norway has played, which is all except 1995 (when Norway only sent the Women´s team).

The Talme brothers, Kristian and Henrik, evened the score to 1-1, but the Norwegians led the match 3-2 after 20 minutes.

The pace in the game was fast in the beginning of the second period and the direction of the game changed quickly. When Norway took a 6-3 lead the Estonian´s frustration started to show and the three 2 minutes penalties and one 10 minutes penalty for unsportsmanlike behaviour resulted in three goals on power play, which secured the victory for Norway.

The final score was 13-5 for Norway. Jari-Petri Anttila, the Estonian coach was not happy with his teams defensive play, read more here.

Ketil Kronberg, Norway (3+1) and Henrik Talme, Estonia (2+1) were awarded as best players.

Poland in the B-division semi-finals

Poland won their third match, but only after a tough match versus Japan. The quick Japanese played spirited against the D-group favourites and created good scoring opportunities. The Polish players were however technically better, especially in finishing the attacks.

The score was 1-1 in 10.36, but thereafter the Polish were playing cat and rat with the Japanese, who were always at least one goal behind. Japan fought until the end, but when they got a penalty for incorrect substitution 30 seconds before the end of the game, Poland secured their place in the semis with a 6-4 victory.

Team Japan´s performance today was the best seen so far and showed that the Japanese at their best, can compete with the best teams in the B-division.

Grzegorz Diaków, Poland (2+0) and Daisuke Ito, Japan (2+0) were awarded as best players.

Second victory for USA after Hungary´s black minutes

The black minutes of Hungary in the second period guaranteed the victory for USA after a tight match with a lot of speed. Within two minutes USA scored three times. The Hungarians fought hard in the end of the second period, but they couldn´t catch the Americans lead.

Now team USA is second in the group D with two victories. They are right behind Poland, which is leading the group with goal difference. Poland and USA will meet tomorrow at 19.10.

Denmark could not threaten the Finns

Finland demonstrated some nice passing play during the first 20 minutes, which the Danish could not respond to and led the match with 5-1.

The Danes improved their movement on the field in the second period and could confuse the passing play of the Finns, but Finland anyhow won the second period with 2-1.

The player of the game, Juha Kivilehto, scored his second goal in the third period and increased the Finnish lead to 8-2, which was the final result as Stig Thorsteinsson, who scored both the Danish goals, could not take advantage of a penalty shot opportunity. Thorsteinsson was elected as Denmark´s best player.

Slovenia beats Great Britain with one goal

Slovenia and Great Britain were leading the tight match in turns. Slovenia kept the 2-1 lead, gained in the first period, until 42.24 when Jamie Black equalised the score. Soon after, Great Britain´s Jens Stanfield took his team into the lead, but the lead only lasted for 50 seconds as Rok Korosek equalised to 3-3.

Slovenia´s most effective player Luka Casar (2+1) scored the decisive goal on power play in 58.37. GB still had a very good oppotunity to equalise during the final seconds but Slovenia´s player of the game, Bajec Benjamin, kept his goal clean and Slovenia won the tight match 5-4.

Great Britain´s coach, Ville Peltomäki, was disappointed after the loss and hopes to increase the productivity of his team against Singapore. The Slovenian team coach, Martin Zich, on the other hand praised his players but said that the players are too nervous in the matches and therefore play better in trainings.

Swedish goal festival

The Swedes took an impressive 6-0 lead in the first period and the match was settled. Daniel Calebsson was the most effective Swede in the match with 4 + 2 and he was also elected as best player. Pavel Semenov scored the only Russian goal although Roman Druzhininskiy also had a good opportunity to score one more, but he missed the penalty shot opportunity. The final score was 18-1 to Sweden.

Germany won their third mach versus Singapore and will play in the B-division semi-finals.

Germany scored four goals before Singapore scored their first and could increase their lead steadily. The final result was 18-3 for Germany.

Fredrik Holtz was the best player of Germany with 5 goals and 2 assists and he is now also leading the B-division scoring chart with 8+6.

Latvia´s second victory

A lot of school children were cheering for either Italy or Latvia playing in the A-division morning match in the Cez arena.

Latvia led with 3-0 after the first period even though they missed a penalty shot.

Italy had some good opportunities as they were twice one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but Mãrtins Krums remained unbeaten in the Latvian goal during the first 20 minutes.

Latvia´s team play was better and the could build good scoring opportunites throughout the game wheras Italy relied more on fast counter attacks. Latvia won the match clearly with 9-3, but the next match will be tougher as the Latvians will play versus Czech Republic tomorrow at 17:10.