Korea 2 – Romania 3
Friday’s first game was critically important for both teams, who entered the day tied for last with three points each. And after losing their first two games badly, the Romanians have now won back-to-back games and it appears they will stay in Group A for another year.
“It’s unbelievable!” said Otto Szekely Sandor. “We did what the coach wanted us to do. Now we’ll stay in the group but if we play well tomorrow, anything can happen.”
Captain Roberto Gliga in the first period and Szekely Sandor in the second gave Romania a 2-0 lead. But with their backs against the wall, the Koreans fought back in the third. Shanghoon Shin and then Jin Hui Ahn on the power play with 6:02 to play made it 2-2.
“I think after 2-0 we got a little bit sloppy,” said goaltender Zoltan Toke. “Some bad decisions and a couple of penalties, but in the end we managed to win and that’s the important thing.”
For the second game in a row, Romania lost the lead late but didn’t give up. Things didn’t look good for them when Tihamer Gyorfy was called for high-sticking with 5:11 left, but Tamas Reszegh led a shorthanded rush into the Korean zone and passed across to Balasz Peter, who fired quickly and beat Yeonseung Lee over the glove.
“Our power play hasn’t scored yet but our PK has scored two, so I guess we’re not bad killing penalties,” coach Dave McQueen smiled. On the remote possibility of finishing in the top two and advancing to the elite tier, he said: “There have been so many surprises this tournament, the standings are turned upside down, and realistically we probably don’t belong in that group but, hey, you never know what’ll happen.”
Slovenia 2 – Japan 1
The Slovenes lost their opener to Korea and didn’t start great in their second against Romania, but since then have reeled off three wins in a row and look like a different team.“The first game, we couldn’t find a way to score a goal, they got us on counterattacks,” said captain Robert Sabolic. “But then we came together, bounced back and now we’ve won three in a row. One more tomorrow and we know what we have to do.”
The first period was fairly evenly played but the Slovenes were more opportunistic with their chances and scored twice, both as a result of forcing turnovers in the Japanese zone. Just shy of the four-minute mark, Ziga Mehle took advantage of a bad giveaway inside the Japanese blueline and had a direct path to the net, where he beat Yutaka Fukufuji to the short side. Then in the 13th minute, some aggressive forechecking by Jan Drozg led to another turnover and a feed in front to Nik Simsic, who made no mistake.
“That was huge,” Sabolic said of the 2-0 lead, noting his team also went up 2-0 on Italy. “Of course, it’s easy to play with the lead compared to trying to come back or when tied. It’s a big thing.”
Midway through the second period, Japan got one back on a 2-on-1, with Kosuke Otsu feeding captain Shogo Nakajima for the finish.
Japan was still very much in the game but their effort to tie the score was hindered by a couple of late penalties. The Slovenes were happy to play keep-away with the puck until Drozg’s power-play goal with 28 seconds to go put it away.
Italy 2 – Hungary 3 (OT)
A tournament-high crowd of 5,394 mostly Italian fans but with a large and loud group of Hungarian supporters made for a fantastic atmosphere in Friday’s nightcap.“It was a great hockey game!,” raved Hungarian coach Don MacAdam. “I think the guys did a great job. We knew that if we played with relentless effort and keep our emotions under control, we were going to be fine.”
Feeding off the energy of their home fans, the Italians were the domiant team in the opening 20 minutes, piling up the chances but unable to beat Bence Balisz. In fact, over the first 40 minutes, Italy outshot Hungary 30-8 but the first goal of the game went to the Hungarians.
“We were better at everything tonight except scoring goals, and if you don’t score goals you don’t win,” said Italian coach Mike Pelino. “We had way more of the play than they did, much better chances, they deserve credit because they found a way to win, but I thought by far we were the better team. We deserved to win but you don’t always get what you deserve.”
Just past the game’s midpoint, Balasz Varga made a nice play to keep the puck in the Italian zone and then on his backhand fed a pass to Istvan Sofron, who fought off a check and on his backhand found some space between the near-side post and Damian Clara’s arm. But after all their chances, Italy managed to equalize on the power play before the middle frame finished when Phil Pietroniro’s one-timer went off a Hungarian skate and in.
The early minutes of the third period were played at a frantic pace, with the teams again trading goals. Akos Mihaly put Hungary back in front when his one-timer found the short side before Clara could slide across in time. But just 1:13 later it was 2-2 when Daniel Frank managed to find the puck in a goalmouth scramble and slide it under Balisz.
“These games, you usually don’t win by nice goals, it’s usually a lucky bounce or working hard in front of the net,” said Frank. “That’s what they did and that’s what we tried to do.”
It went to overtime where Varga scored the winner, finishing off a nifty give-and-go with Janos Hari.
“I just got on the ice, I got the puck from the D and then I saw we had an opportunity for a 2-on-1 against the defender,” Varga describe. “I just gave it to Hari, he bumped it back to me and the net was open.”
That leaves everything to be settled on Saturday. Beginning with Romania vs Japan, where two points will be enough to save Japan from relegation; Italy vs Korea, where the Koreans hope they won't already be done, and finishing up with Hungary vs Slovenia, where Slovenia is already assured promotion thanks to Friday night's result, and what Hungary needs to join them will be determined by the first two games.