The World Championships moved from Ostrava to Prague during Thursday. For the A-division teams Friday is reserved for training. In the B-division the placement matches started today.
Netherlands took the 19th place after an exciting match
The first match in Sparta Areena was for the 19th place. This match betweeen Netherlands and Great Britain was very intensive as both teams were looking for their first victory in the tournament. The Netherlands was stronger in the beginning of the match, but Great Britain really improved their game in the third period.
Netherlands was leading 3-1 when there was less than 10 minutes time left. In the end Great Britain was able to tie the match when Simon Baker equalized the match with a hard slap shot. The joy from this goal was very short as Jan Hubacher scored 4-3 only 45 seconds after the equalizer.
In the last minute Great Britain hit the post two times, but was not able to score. Therefore Netherlands took their first victory with the result 4-3.
17th place for team Hungary
The match between Hungary and Slovenia was exciting until the end.
The score was 1-1 when going into the the 2nd period and when Hungary scored 2-1 and soon after scored again from a penalty shot, the Slovenians were not able to equalize the score anymore.
In the end Slovenia came pretty close with the help of the Hungarians, who scored an own goal in 57.07, but after this Hungary managed to keep their defense together, and with loud cheering from their supporters, Hungary took the 17th place in the WFC 2008.
The best players of the match were Anze Pristavec, the Slovenian who was involved in all goals and from team Hungary, Gabor Pajor , who scored Hungary´s 4th goal.
The top matches on Friday were the B Semi-finals in Sparta Arena. In the first semi-final the winner of the Group C, Germany, was challenged by USA. This was the first time ever that these countries met in the WFC.
Effective last period took Germany to the B-Final
There was lot of speed in the game from the beginning. Both of the teams were prepeared to fight for the place in the B-Final and they fought for every boll. USA had three penalties in the first two periods and the German brothers, Kristian and Fredrik Holtz, scored during all of them.
On equal strength USA was also able to even the score again and after two periods the result was 4-4.
In the third period Germany was stronger and when both of the Holtz brothers completed their hat tricks, Germany won the third period 5-0. With these goals the final result was 9-4 to Germany and they will continue the tournament in the B-final. The winner of the B-final will be directly qualified to WFC 2010 so the there is a lot at stake in the match. USA on the other hand, will play for B-division bronze in their last match.
Poland versus Germany in the B-division Final
The better team play secured the place in the B-division final for the Polish team as they won with 7-3 against Austria.
The match started nervously, but as Austria concentrated more on the defense Poland improved their offense and Mattias Mikulski scored the first goal in the end of the first period.
The polish were given the opportunity to control the game, which they utilised well and increased their lead during the second period to 4-1. Many different players succeeded in scoring from the Polish team and as a team Poland was stronger and deserved their place in the final.
Michal Dziurdzik, POL and Michael Schachner, AUT were awarded as best players.
Poland will meet Germany in the B-final starting at 13:10 in the O2 Arena. The winner of the B-final will be directly qualified to WFC 2010. Austria and USA will play for the B-division bronze.
