While Germany dominated their game, and Austria cruised through theirs, Hungary & Italy battled out a tough match.

Austria and Netherlands played first up today and it took only 33 seconds before Austria found the net. Before Netherlands had a chance to gather themselves and try and reset their game plan, Austria had put two more goals in had a 3-0 after just four minutes. With such a commanding position so early in the game Austria were able to play with little pressure being put on their own goal. They finished the 1st period at 5-0 and cruised through the rest of the game. The Dutch composed themselves to get back in to the match but were never able to break the Austrian defence, with the final score being 8-0.

Germany against Great Britain was a very one-sided affair. The Germans had a steady first period of 3-0, but they absolutely blitzed the second period scoring 14-0. The period started badly for Great Britain, being penalised 2mins for being late back from the break, and after Germany converted the powerplay at 20:16 it just spiralled downhill from there. As frustrated as the British team were they played as well as they could against an opponent who was just a class above them. With no replacement option on the bench the British keeper had no choice but to just keep trying the best he could and finished with 60 saves.

Hungary versus Italy was a messy game. Both teams played at a fast tempo but both suffered the same problem – the speed of their feet did not match with their level of stick skills, so the game swung from end to end with little structure or control. Both teams had scoring chances but loose shots along with good saves meant the scoreboard was empty until the halfway point of the match. It took a substitution error from Italy to give Hungary a powerplay and, at the first chance with the extra player, they converted to go 1-0 up. Early in the last period, a quick corner-hit from Italy caught the Hungarians off guard and at 1-1 the Italians were energised but it was the Hungarians who were able to better control their emotions and the ball and started to find space close to the Italian goal, and eventually also get several past the keeper. Once the Hungarians got back in front they managed to held possession and didn´t allow Italy back into the game. Final score 4-1.

Match statistics can be found here.

Photos are available on Flickr and match replays on YouTube.