The highlight of the first day of the first day of the IIHF World Championship Division I Group A in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania was a back-and-forth game between Great Britain and Ukraine that was settled in a shootout. That was sandwiched between regulation victories by Italy and Poland, who both look strong to start the tournament.
The Day 1 results were:
Italy over Japan 4-1,
Great Britain over Ukraine 4-3 in a shootout, and
Poland over Romania 4-1.
Japan 1 – Italy 4 (0-2, 1-2, 0-0)
The Italians were disappointed not to advance from last year’s I-A tournament on home ice and served notice in their opener this year that they’re not going to take anybody lightly. In their first World Championship game with Jukka Jalonen behind the bench, they dominated most of the first two periods and defended well in the third, defeating Japan 4-1.
“We tried to have a good start to this tournament,” said Tommy Purdeller, who led the Italian offence with two goals and an assist. “We scored a big goal right away at the beginning and kept scoring after that. We’re happy with the end result of this game and we just want to keep going.”
One line did most of the damage for Italy, with the HC Pustertal pair of Purdeller and Mats Frycklund, complemented by Daniel Tedesco scoring three of the team’s goals. In addition to Purdeller’s output, Frycklund and Tedesco had two points each.
“They’re two great players,” the centre Frycklund said of his wingers. “I know Tommy from before – he likes to shoot and I like to pass, so it’s very simple. Teddy (Tedesco) has been playing with us for three games, I think, and he’s playing really well. We’re building chemistry now and we’re playing better and better, and I know we can do a little better.”
Italy got the game’s first power play just 41 seconds in when Riku Ishida was called for hooking and went to work right away. Yuta Narisawa got a glove on Phil Pietroniro’s initial shot but Purdeller was right there to put in the rebound.
The Italian attack continued and went up 2-0 in the eighth minute – Nicholas Saracino forced a turnover with a hit behind the net and a quick pass from Bryce Misely found Alexander Ieurullo for the one-timer in front.
The Purdeller–Frycklund–Tedesco was all over the Japanese zone on the 3-0 goal – Tedesco sent a no-look backhand pass along the boards to Frycklund behind the net. He held the puck long enough to draw Japanese defenders toward him, then with a quick pass found Purdeller in front for his second of the game at 27:33.
Purdeller was brilliant on the fourth Italian goal. With less than four minutes remaining in the middle frame, the former Peterborough Pete chipped the puck out of the zone then outracing a Japanese backchecker for the puck. In the Japanese zone, he found a streaking Tedesco, who beat Narisawa to the glove side just inside the post.
Japan got one back just 90 seconds later on the power play when Teruto Nakajima faked shot, then made a cross-ice pass for a Chikara Hanzawa one-timer. Leaning the wrong way, Davide Fadani just missed getting his glove on the perfect shot, but it was the only one of Japan’s 19 shots to beat the Italian netminder.
“I think every game is going to be hard this tournament,” said Purdeller. “We’re not taking anybody lightly.”
Ukraine 3 – Great Britain 4 [SO] (0-1, 2-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)
In a back-and-forth game, Great Britain scored the first two goals, Ukraine came back to take a 3-2 lead, then GB pushed late to tie it and eventually won in a shootout. For the Ukrainians – who just advanced from Division I-B – taking a point against a team that just came down from the elite division is a victory on some level, but they were also eight minutes away from taking three. For GB, the result might seem lacklustre but, given the team’s lack of preparation time, they were happy with to see the team get stronger as the game went on against an opponent they knew would be tough to beat.
“It’s positive that we came back from 2-0 down, but we need to learn how to keep the lead because we lost it late,” said Ukrainian captain Igor Merezkho. “We played well, we pushed but, at the end of the day, we need to play better around our own net.”
“It was tough,” said British defenceman Ben O’Connor. “We had a three-days camp with our domestic season finishing late. We had two-a-day practices and straight here with no (pre-tournament) games, so we knew there was going to be some rust. We just need to try to stay positive and I think the third period showed that but give Ukraine credit – they had a game plan, they played very well and they’re gonna have a lot of success in this tournament.”
GB led 1-0 after one period on a deflection goal by Josh Waller but that wasn’t necessarily indicative of the play, with Ukraine holding an 11-7 edge in shots. The Brits then went up 2-0 early in the second on another deflection – off a faceoff in the attacking zone, O’Connor’s point shot was tipped mid-air by Brett Perlini.
Then Ukraine came back. First it was a stretch pass from Andri Denyskin that found Viktor Zakharov in full flight. He blew past the GB defence and beat Ben Bowns five-hole. Just past the 32-minute mark, they tied it off the rush, with Daniil Trakht finishing off a pretty passing play with a wrist shot that beat Bowns high glove side.
With just 10:44 remaining in regulation time, Ukraine took the lead for the first time – Denys Borodai received the puck on his backhand along the boards, cut into the middle and beat Bowns short side from the high slot.
But, as mentioned, GB didn’t go quietly. It looked like they’d tied it on a goal by Ben Lake but video replay determined he had used a kicking motion, but less than two minutes after that, O’Connor’s centring pass deflected in off the skate of a Ukrainian defender with 7:18 to play. Again a video review was needed as the net had been displaced, but it was determined that it was caused by the action of a Ukrainian player so the goal stood.
“We said beefore the faceoff, we’re just gonna run a D down the wall and crash and bang and get bodies to the net,” said O’Connor. “I don’t know how it went in and I don’t care if it’s mine or whoever’s.”
“Sometimes it kills us that we’re rushing too much, but we have speed and we use it,” said Merezkho. “I think we played pretty good hockey for 50 minutes today.”
After a scoreless overtime, O’Connor and Lake scored on Britian’s first two shootout attempts and Bowns stopped all four Ukrainian shooters.
Romania 1 – Poland 4 (0-1, 1-1, 0-2)
Poland, who like Great Britain has returned to I-A after being relegated from the elite group, faced host Romania in the nightcap and put on a strong performance. But despite a 38-13 edge in shots, the outcome of this game remained in doubt until late in the third period.
“At the end of the day, Poland’s a good hockey team, they made it tough on us getting to the net, but if you don’t shoot the puck when you have the opportunity, 13 shots isn’t going to win many hockey games,” said Dave MacQueen, Romania’s head coach.
Just shy of the seven-minute mark, Poland opened the scoring as the result of a forced turnover in the defensive zone and a quick counterattack, with Alan Lyszczarczyk electing to shoot on the 2-on-1, beating Attila Adorjan between the glove and the body.
Nearly eight minutes into the second period, Poland went up 2-0 and again, it came off the rush. This time it was Damian Tyczynski taking a long pass from Mateusz Bryk and beating Adorjan between the blocker and the body.
But despite the one-sided nature of the game, the Poles couldn’t widen the lead further and, with 5:31 remaining in the middle frame, Romania got on the board on an innocent-looking play. Again it was off the rush, with Otto Ferencz-Csibi carrying the puck into the Polish zone and feeding Roberto Gliga, who sent a long, unscreened shot along the ice that found space between John Murray’s pads.
“It can be a little tough for the goalie on the side with the less shots, because you’re a litlte colder, you don’t have a good feel for the puck in those games,” said Murray. “Tonight in the second period, I might have gone 10 minutes without a shot, and that one that went in was just end-over-end, tough to read and it just ended up in.”
In the third period, Romania got a power play and applied pressure for the equalizer but wasn’t able to make it go. Then on a Polish power play, Patrik Krezolek restored his team’s two-goal lead with 5:44 to go, taking a pass in front of the net and firing a nifty backhand into the roof of the net.
An empty-netter by Krezolek rounded out the scoring.
After the first day, Italy and Poland have three points each, Great Britain has two and Ukraine has one, while Japan and Romania will search for their first points tomorrow.
Day 2 schedule (all times EET):
- Italy vs Ukraine, 12:30
- Poland vs Japan, 16:00
- Great Britain vs Romania, 19:30