Ukraine, Italy and Slovenia all celebrate second consecutive victories on Day 2 of the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship, Division 1B in Bled, Slovenia.

Following a day´s rest, the tournament will be back in action on Thursday with Croatia facing off against Poland, Slovenia locking horns with Estonia and Ukraine taking on Italy.

UKRAINE 5, ESTONIA 1

Two quick-fire goals in the third period earned Ukraine a second win in U20 Division 1B.

Mykyta Sydorenko powered himself past Estonia´s blueliner Rico Velja to net Ukraine´s 2-1 goal at 46:52. 97 seconds later, Sydorenko turned provider to pick out Illia Kryklia who dispatched Ukraine´s third past Estonian netminder Fjodor Aganezovs.

Captain Olexi Dakhnovsky led by example to stretch Ukraine´s lead to 4-1 on the powerplay with just over five minutes left of the third period. Winning the shots 33-19, Mykhailo Kovalchuk added a fifth with an empty netter.

It marks Ukraine´s second straight 5-1 win in the tournament. Just as in their opener, Ukraine´s goals were shared between five different scorers. Illia Dubsky also tallied for Ukraine with his equalising goal in the middle frame.

Estonia, the youngest team in the tournament, suffered their second consecutive 5-1 loss. Demid Morozov turned 17 earlier this month and was selected as Estonia´s best player of the game. It was the Tallinn-born prospect who opened the scoring when reacting quickest on a rebound from a Deniss Kontseus shot in the first period while on the powerplay.

ITALY 11, CROATIA 2

Alessandro Segafredo netted a hat-trick as Italy hit double digits against neighbours Croatia.

Alan Lobis enjoyed a memorable afternoon with five assists closely followed by Tommaso De Luca who tallied four helpers. Between the pipes, Matthias Rindone enjoyed a winning start at this level with 24 saves.

Luciano Zandegiacomo Mistrotione capitalized on sloppy Croatian defensive play to open the scoring at 9:47 in what was to be a miserable afternoon for Croatia. Having run away with a 9-2 lead, Italy then took the foot off the gas with Olmo Pietro Albis and Nicolo Remolato adding another couple in the final frame.

Croatia is back competing at a level they most recently skated at in 2012/13. Winless after two games, Tin Alic and Martin Simunkovic scored in quick succession for Croatia to momentarily cut the deficit to 4-2. Omar Zdralovic got debut at this level replacing Teo Janjatovic Loncar in Croatia´s goal following Italy´s seventh goal.

SLOVENIA 3, POLAND 0

Helped by a couple of power play goals, hosts Slovenia blanked Poland to remain undefeated in the tournament.

Against a well-organized Polish team, Slovenia´s Tjas Lesnicar opened the scoring with a drive from the point with 49 seconds left of the first frame.

Keeping out all 16 shots, goalie Lan Kavcic enjoyed a shutout for Slovenia. At the other end, Nace Langus doubled Slovenia´s lead at 31.45 when Poland´s captain Eryk Schafer was serving a two-minute minor. With 3:32 left of the middle frame, Anze Zezelj unleashed a wrister through traffic on the power play to stretch the home favourites lead to 3-0 inside Ice Arena Bled.

Debuting as head coach of Poland´s U20, Ireneusz Jarosz added 15 new faces to his roster compared to last season. One of those is netminder Jakub Ciucka who got his first start and saved 32 shots.