The 5th Men U19 Championships started today in Finland. The B-division match Austria-Japan opened the championships in Raisio as the first match in A-division and Turku Arena was between Switzerland and Denmark.

The Danish comeback to A-division was not easy as they met the 4th ranked Switzerland in the opening match. Switzerland controlled the match from the beginning and had 5-0 lead already after the first period.

When half of the match was played, Jonas H. Nielsen scored the first Danish goal in the tournament.

Switzerland was better throughout the match and the final result was 14-1 to Swiss team.The best scorers for Switzerland were Sandro Cavelti (2+3), Nino Wälti (3+1) and Marc Oliver Gerber (2+2).

Austria took the first points in B-division

Austria won the first match of the B-division defeating Japan with 5-1 in front of more than 400 spectators.The match was decided after 27 minutes when Japan had a good opportunity to score 2-3 but in the counter attack that followed Austria scored 4-1.

The Austrian man-to-man tactics proved to be too difficult for Japan to solve and they were not given the time and space needed to be a real threat to Austria in this well played match. David Pirker (2+1) was the most effective player of the match. Akira Kato, who also scored the Japanese goal, was the best player of Japan and Felix Moosburger was the best player of Austria.

Canada and Germany started with 5-5 draw

Canada was really near to take a victory in their first MU19 WFC match in the history. The intensive match against Germany ended 5-5. The equalizer for Germany was scored only 13 seconds before the end of the match.

Germany was sharp in the beginning and scored already during the first minute. The match was tight and the tempo was high as both teams wanted the victory.

In the beginning of the third period Germany took 4-2 lead with a powerplay goal and it seemed like they will play to the victory. Despite of this, the Canadian team did not give up. During the last ten minutes Andrew Radjenovic scored three times and Canada took the lead 5-4.

These goals were however not enough for the victory as Simon von Kroge scored the equalizer for Germany only 13 seconds before the end and therefore the final result was 5-5. Von Kroge and Radjenovic were also selected as the best players of the teams.

Czech Republic defeated Norway with clear margin

Czech Republic started the championships with 12-1 victory over Norway. The Czech team controlled already the first period, but the match was decided in second period when Czech Republic scored seven goals.

The more skilful Czech team took the ball possession in the beginning of the match, but they didn´t shoot that much and scored only twice before the intermission. The breaking point of the match was in the second period, when Norway got 5 minutes penalty. During the penalty Czech Republic scored twice and increased their lead to 6-1.

The Czech team was creative in the offensive zone, and in the defensive zone their defenders were able to block the Norwegian forwards from the ball. Due to this most of the low tempo match was played in the Norwegian end of the rink.

The Czech team took the first victory in the tournament with final result 12-1.

The best players of the match were Martin Tokos (CZE) and Thomas Sola (NOR).

Easy victory for the reigning champions

The reigning champion, Sweden, started their tournament by defeating the Latvians with 17-1.

The Swedes did not lend the ball to their opponent and although Latvia did quite a good job in the defence for the first 20 minutes, the Swedes led 2-0 in the intermission.

Sweden settled the match in the second period as the lead increased to 12-0 before Aivis Kusiņš scored the first and only goal for Latvia.

Henrik Stenberg and Bobby Edberg scored four goals and also Kevin Lundgren was very effective today with 2+2. Rickard Hessmer with 2+0 was awarded as best player of team Sweden.

Hungary – Poland a draw

The third match of the B-division was a very tight game with lots of goals when the teams were leading the game in turns.

Both teams led the match with a two goal difference twice, first Poland after a 2-0 power play goal by Norbert Gábor Ressely and then Hungary in 27.10 after Łukasz Chlebda´s 5-3 goal.The final numbers were however 9-9 and both teams gained one point.

Finland winning easily 

After some problems in opening the game during the first period, Finland proved to be the stronger team and could win their first match with clear numbers.

Good man cover by the Slovaks in their defensive zone but despite this, Finland could create some good scoring chances and two shots hit the post within the first ten minutes.Casper Pfitzner was the best player in the first period as he took his team to a 1-0 and then to a 2-0 lead, the second goal with a brilliant wrist shot after breaking through from the corner.

Finland was also stronger in the second period although Slovakia did not play bad either, they just could not get to the best scoring sector. Team Finland´s second line was the most effective in the second period, Tomi Palin scored on power play and Eemeli Salin scored twice. The young Pfitzner scored his third of the night and was elected as the best player. As Teemu Kortelainen kept his goal clean and Finland scored continuously the final result was 9-0. The goalkeeper, Gabriel Meszáros, played solidly through the match and was elected as best player of Slovakia.

Last minute victory for Estonia

The even match between Russia and Estonia was decided in the last minute when Carol Viiding scored the winning 5-4 goal for Estonia in 59.00.

Russia was more effective in the first period and with two goals by Denis Krysolov they had the lead 3-1 after first period. The shots in all of the three periods were quite even, but it was Estonia who succeeded to get more balls to the goal in the second period. The third period started with 4-3 goal to Russia.

Ats Tamme scored his second goal in the match in 41.58 and tied the match to 4-4. Estonia had four 2 minute penalties in the last period, but despite the power play and one penalty shot Russia was not able to score. In 59.00 the match turned to Estonia with the goal shot by Viiding.

Vladimir Garevskikh from Russia and Oscar Salm from Estonia were awarded as the best players of the teams.