5th February
In the 1st day of the Women´s World Championships Qualification the two top ranked teams Italy and Slovakia showed that they plan to keep their ranking – Italy by crushing Georgia in group A and Slovakia by convincingly defeating the 3rd ranked Spain in group B.
In group A Estonia also had a good start winning Austria 6-2 after having showed strength in the last 10 minutes of the match.
Slovenia and Spain in a tight battle
The last match of the day saw the home team Slovenia enter the arena for the first time this week. Slovenia took on Spain in front of a very enthusiastic and, for the home team, helpful crowd.
Spain took the lead in the end of the 1st period and extended the lead to 2-0 early in the 2nd and it looked like they would be able to control the match – but Slovenia got the engine going and turned the match in the end of the period and had 3-2 going into the intermission several goals due to mistakes in the spanish defence.
Spain equalized early in the 3rd period but that didn´t stop the home team that went into a 5-3 lead after half the 3rd period. When Spain got the opportunity to play a power play they managed to pull them self together and score and only 48 seconds later also equalize to 5-5 – which also was the final result of the match.
6th February
In the 2nd day of the Women´s World Championships Qualification both Estonia (group A) and Slovakia (group B) secured their way into deciding matches of the qualification. Estonia defeated Italy 5-1 to win the group and Slovakia showed no mercy winning both Slovenia (5-2) and Spain (9-1).
In group A Georgia took an early lead and gave Austria a tough 1st half of the match before the more experienced Austria could run away to a 12-3 win.
Exciting matches the last day of the groups
The last match of each group will decide which teams follows Estonia and Slovakia to the semifinals.
In group A Austria takes on Italy at 16:30 and in group B Spain plays vs Slovenia at 19:15.
7th February
In the last day of the group matches, the last two matches, there was still to decide which teams should join Estonia and Slovakia in the semifinals.
Italy and Austria played a tight match that wasn´t decided until Italy scored the 3-0 goal after 55 minutes. The last minute of the match was quite spectacular where 4 goals were made from which 3 within 12 seconds. The match ended 5-2 for Italy.
The match of the day
The last match of the day was played between Spain and Slovenia. 700 spectators attended, most of them cheering the home team. The live video of the match had 1000 spectators. When the teams met earlier this week the match ended with a draw 5-5 and the rest of the results had been such that Slovenia needed a draw only to advance to the semifinals whilst Spain needed to win this match.
Spain took the lead already after 29 seconds and a golden opportunity to seize a firm grip of the match was missed when the Slovenian keeper saved the penalty shot that Spain was rewarded after 2:10. Slovenia got back into the match and in the end of the period Slovenia equalized by an own goal by Spain.
It took almost 12 minutes of the 2nd period before the next goal came and again it was Spain that went into the lead after a shorthanded goal. The joy didn´t last so long since Slovenia used the same power play to equalize to the great pleasure of the crowd. After 39:11 Spain again regained the lead, so after two periods Spain had a 3-2 lead.
The third period was tough. The importance of the match and the heat in the arena gave the referees a lot to do. Out of the 11 penalties in the match 6 came in the last period. During the second of these Slovenia equalized, shorthanded, after 47:50. Spain put in the last efforts to win and after 55.59 they took the lead for the fourth time in the match and when Slovenia got a 2-minute penalty at 57.07 it looked like they were going to make it. But Slovenia should get one more power play opportunity and with 48 seconds to go the crowd went berserk when Slovenia equalized to 4-4 and secured the place in the semifinal.
Estonia and Slovakia in the final of the WFC Qualification
Estonia won the first semifinal, defeating Slovenia 6-2, and is thereby qualified to the WFC 2009 B-division in Sweden 5th-12th of December. Estonia took an early 2-0 lead and controlled the match from the start to the end, Slovenia possibly having the last night match in their heads and legs.
Slovakia convincingly defeated Italy 11-3 in the 2nd semifinal to join Estonia in the final and in the WFC in Sweden.
Slovenia and Italy will get a new chance to qualify tomorrow 8th of February when they play eachother for the last spot in the WFC 2009 B-division.
Earlier today Spain defeted Austria 4-1 in the 5th place match. The scoring was even after two periods but Spain proved stronger in the last period and went from 1-1 to a 4-1 victory.
