First victory for Poland

The second tournament day started in Kerttula Arena with match between Austria and Poland. The strong second period confirmed the first victory for Poland. The Polish team defeated Austria 14-7 in a goal rich match.

The young and noisy audience was entertained with lots of goals in the first period as the teams scored six, the score being 3-3 in the first intermission. After tight first period Poland improved their game in the second period. The more technical and skilful Polish team scored four goals and the score was 7-3 after two periods.

In the third period both teams had the focus on offence and this resulted in many goals. Poland scored 7 and Austria four in the last period so the final result was 14-7.

The best players of the teams were Felix Mooseburger (AUT) and Lukasz Chlebda (POL).

Good speed secured the 2nd victory for Switzerland

A spectator friendly start of the A-division match, Switzerland – Latvia, as the game was fast with a lot of counter attacks in both directions.

After 20 minutes the game was 2-2, the Latvian goals being a result of Artis Savins quick hands, first a nicely executed penalty shot and then brilliant feints to make the 2-1 goal. Both of the Swiss goals were long distance shots, scored by Sandro Cavelti and Nino Wälti.

Switzerlands fast movement proved to be too much for the opponent and suddenly the Swiss were leading with three goals in the second period. As no goals were scored within the last 38 minutes, despite four power plays, the score remained 5-2 until the end.

Nino Wälti, Sandro Cavelti, Matthias Gloor with 1+1 and Stefan Siegenthaler with 0+2 were the most effective players in the Swiss team today.

Sandro Rindlisbacher and Artis Savins were awarded as best players.

One-goal victory for Norway

The 6th and 7th team from U19 2007, Norway and Slovakia, were hunting for their first group match victory as both teams lost yesterday with big numbers. Jens Jorgensen scored the first goal of the match but then the strong Slovakians managed to give pressure and took a 2-1 lead after goals scored by Jakub Konecný and Mário Seman.

The game was not the prettiest seen so far in the tournament, but continued to be very exciting as the teams were leading the match in turns. Norway got into the lead for the second time in 39.05 and Slovakia´s fourth 2 minutes penalty became crucial as the Norwegians increased their lead to 6-4 and were two goals ahead for the first time.

Team Slovakia played in the last minutes without the goalie, which paid off as they reduced the Norwegian lead to 5-6 in 19.24. Slovakia then also hit the post once during the last seconds, but 6-5 to Norway was the final result.

Jonas Pettersen and Jakub Konecný who both scored two goals were awarded as best players.

4-3 victory for Russia in an intensive high tempo match

Canada and Russia started with accurate defence and the full house of young spectators had to wait for the first goal until the end of the first period. Vladimir Garevskikh succeeded in a penalty shot and Russia took the 1-0 lead.

In the beginning of the second period Canada played power play and Joel Inouye tied the match by running behind the goal and scoring with oldfashion style. In general Canada was better in the team play, but individually the Russians were more skilful. The individual skills of the Russians resulted in more accurate shots and they were able to take the lead again.

First Vladislav Podshivalov scored with wrist shot and in the beginning of the third period Ilya Veshnyakov increased the lead to 3-1 with really hard slap shot to the top corner of the Canadian goal. The third period was really intensive as both teams wanted to win and the speed of the game was high. Canada reduced the lead to 3-2 with identical oldfashion goal scored again by Joel Inouye.

The match was decided in the last five minutes, when skilful Russian forward Denis Krysolov broke through from the corner and was able to score to 4-2 even though he was surrounded by defenders. Only one minute later Roger Sherwood reduced the lead to 4-3, but then the Russian goalkeeper Konstantin Kuryatnikov kept his net clean and Russia took their first victory in the tournament with 4-3.

Sweden & Hungary crushed their opponents

The fastest goal of the tournament was scored by team Sweden´s Rickard Hessmer after 32 seconds of play versus Denmark and more was to come as the score was already 6-0 after ten minutes

Sweden got a chance to rehearse their passing play, especially in their offensive zone, as there was only one playmaking team on the field. The ball was only occasionally seen in the Swedish defensive zone and the game was over already in the first period. The only goal for team Denmark was scored by Nikolaj Jensen.The final score for Sweden was 27-1

The Swedish players collected an impressive amount of points, Henrik Stenberg 5+3, Victor Andersson 0+6 and Rickard Hessmer 5+0 and after two games the Swedish players are topping the scoring chart. All scoring leaders are found on the IFF U19 web page.

The leaders of the A group, Sweden and Switzerland, will play for the first place in the group tomorrow at 16.15.  Hernik Stenberg and Jonas H. Nielsen were elected as best players.

Hungary defeated Japan 17-2 in the group C match. After two matches are played in group C, Hungary and Poland are leading the group with three points.

Hungary took control of the game from the start and after 20 minutes the score was already 5-0. Most of the match was played in the Japanese defensive zone as the more skilful Hungarians had the ball in possession.

In the second period the energetic Japanese team got better scoring chances and Ryota Nishii succeeded to score the first Japanese goal.

The Hungarian team came to the third period with good attitude and totally dominated the period. With nine goals to Hungary in the last period the final result was 17-2. The most effective players for Hungary were Zoltán Németh (3+2) and Norbert Nagy (3+2).

The best players of the teams were Ryota Nishii (JPN) and Domokos Racz (HUN).

Important victory for Finland 

Casper Pfitzner scored his second hat trick and Finland to the semi-finals after defeating Czech republic with 6-4.

Jesse Tolvanen took Finland to a 1-0 lead after five minutes of play, but only two minutes later, the Czechs had a free hit from the best scoring sector and the shot by Jiří Juhaňák went straight to the goal. Finland started to give more pressure in the Czech defensive zone and when Jere Oksanen could find Casper Pfitzner who was left without guard, he put Finland to the lead again.

Pfitzner also scored the 3-1 lead to Finland before the intermission. Perttu Puska increased the lead to 5-2, but then Miloš Tyl reduced the lead to two goals. Five minutes later Tolvanen scored his second of the night and increased the lead to safe looking numbers 6-3, but once again the Czechs could come back after a successful penalty shot by Adam Stegl.

The Czechs pressured in the end, but 6-4 remained the score and Finland took an important victory tonight. Stegl and Pfitzner were awarded as best players.

Another tight victory for Estonia

The tight matches continued in B-division group D, when Germany met Estonia. Estonia was able to win the match 5-4 and now three of the matches in the group have ended with one goal difference as the fourth was a draw.

The match between Germany and Estonia was even from the beginning to the end. Both teams had the lead in turns, first Estonia was a bit stronger and in the half way of the match it was Germany who had the lead. The score after second period was 3-2 to Germany.

The match was decided in the third period, when Carol Viiding scored the 4-3 lead to Estonia. Germany was not able to tie the match with five players so they took the goalie out for the last minutes and tried to score with one man more. This gambling did not succeed as it was Estonia and Elvis Aug who managed to score the 5-3 lead into the empty net. The last minute reducing goal to 5-4 shot by Matthias Siede was therefore not enough and Estonia took the important points with result 5-4.