In a game between two teams whose quarter-final hopes are quickly fading but the threat of relegation is very real, Norway edged Slovenia 1-0.
After blowing a two-goal lead and losing their opener against Kazakhstan in a shootout, followed by a regulation loss to Switzerland, the Norwegians knew that they had to beat Slovenia.
“The teams that are around our rankings are must games for us to win,” said Norwegian forward Mathias Trettenes. “We thought we had a good chance against Kazakhstan but we faded a little in the end. Tonight, we stuck with it for 60 minutes, a full team effort.”
“It was a hard battle from both sides and they came out on top,” said Slovenian captain Jan Urbas. “When you don’t score any goals it’s hard to win games. It’s a tough loss.”
Thomas Berg-Paulsen scored the game’s only goal at 14:05 and Henrik Haukeland stopped all 18 Slovenian shots for his first career World Championship shutout in his 23rd game. At thend other end, Gasper Kroselj stopped 28 of 29 Norwegian shots.
“The knife was at our throats, Can I say it like that?, so we knew this was a big game for us,” said Haukeland. “We knew we had to come away with the win and I'm really proud of how the guys blocked shots at the end. It was a team effort.”
Thomas Berg-Paulsen scored the game’s only goal off the rush just past the 14-minute mark. Johannes Johannesen found Berg-Paulsen, who carried the puck down the left wing and beat Kroselj with a wrist shot over the blocker.
“I should have shot it sooner but I got held up, the goalie came pretty far out so I put it in the top corner, it was available there,” Berg-Paulsen described.
To that point, Norway had carried the play but the Slovenes began to push back late in the first period, particularly when they got the game’s first power play. On their most dangerous sequence, Haukeland kicked out the first shot by Jan Drozg and then reached to catch the rebound by Jan Urbas with his glove when it seemed the Norwegian goalie was down and out.
The Slovenes made another push late in the second period on another penalty and, for a split second, thought they had tied the game when Rok Ticar’s blast found the mesh. However, Slovenia’s Bine Masic was called for intereference on the play, which negated the goal.
On the ensuing 4-on-4, Trettenes had a chance to widen Norway’s lead but rang a one-timer off the near-side goalpost.
Each team had a power play chance in the first half of the third period, generating little offence either way. As the minutes ticked away, Slovenia became more desperate but the Norwegians defended furiously and got a couple of odd-man chances themselves on the counter-attack.
With a minute to go, Kroselj went to the bench for the sixth attacker Slovenia went for it all. There was a wild scramble in the dying seconds but the puck just wouldn’t find a way in, with captain Ken Andre Olimb coming up with a big shot block as time expired.
Norway is back at it tomorrow against host Latvia, while Slovenia next plays on Thursday against Czechia.
As the group’s only remaining team without any points, the loss is a bit of a blow to Slovenia’s hopes of remaining in the top flight of the World Championship. However, the chances are still there if they can pick up enough points over their remaining four games. Their final game against Kazakhstan is surely circled on their calendars, but since that team already has two points, anything that can be gained in the next three games would be most helpful.
“We showed in the last game against Canada that we can play against those big teams too,” said Urbas. “We just have to play our game – hard defence and wait for our chances. With the right bounces, we can surprise some other teams too and get some points.”
