Italy secured their first win, while Slovenia took Latvia to the sixth round of the shootout on the third day of games in Riga at the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group B tournament. Slovakia remains undefeated, with a second 7-1 victory, this time over Great Britain.
Slovakia 7 - Great Britain 1
Slovakia won their third game in a row in Riga, with their defence getting in on the scoring, netting four of Slovakia’s seven goals.
Former PHF defender Iveta Klimasova opened scoring less than two minutes in, with a glove side top corner shot from the high slot. Her defence partner, Simone Martina Bednarik, tapped in a rebound at 8:15 to put Slovakia up 2-0.
While Slovakia’s goaltending wasn’t really tested in their first two games, Great Britain found a way through Slovakia’s defence, putting 32 shots on goalie Andrea Risianova. Great Britain was only able to score one goal however, a long shot from the blue line from Kathryn Marsden on the power play to cut Slovakia’s lead in half.
Finishing the first period with a 2-1 lead, Slovakia took off with four unanswered goals in the second. Janka Hlinkova, who ended up having a four point performance, scored her first goal of the game. The next three goals were the first career World Championship goals for two young rookies, 17-year-old Lilien Benakova and 18-year-old defender Ema Galisova, who scored two from the blue line.
Hlinkova scored Slovakia’s final goal of the game in the third period with just 56 seconds remaining, crashing the net to redirect a cross ice pass from Ema Tothova.
Italy 2 - Poland 1
taly secured their first win of the tournament over Poland, yet another game for the Italian squad decided by just one goal.
Poland scored first at 4:36, with Karolina Pozniewska skating up the wing and sending a saucer pass to Tetiana Onyshchenko, who scored blocker side. Italy tied the score before the first intermission however, with Samantha Gius redirecting a shot from Anna Caumo 19 seconds into Italy’s first power play of the game. Despite four penalties to Italy to close out the first period, including a 41 second 5-on-3 opportunity, Poland was unable to retake the lead before the first intermission.
Neither team was able to score in the second period, with Italy outshooting Poland 17-6. Greta Niccolai was the hero for Italy in the third period, pouncing on a loose puck in the slot to score at 47:49 and give her team a 2-1 lead. Poland rallied hard to try to push overtime—with a penalty to Italy in the final five minutes, Poland pulled goalie Martyna Sass for some 6-on-4 play—but Italy took the win.
Slovenia 4 - Latvia 3 (SO)
A loud Latvian home crowd was treated to a thrilling match-up between Latvia and Slovenia, albeit one that saw Slovenia take the win by besting Latvia in the shootout.
Latvia struck first at 13:46, with Agnese Apsite getting her stick on the puck during a scramble in front of Slovenian goalie Pia Dukaric. Slovenia started the second period strongly however, with Gaja Pezdir tying the game less than two minutes in.
What ensued was a thrilling back-and-forth second period. Latvia went up 3-1 thanks to goals from Anna Lagzdina and Liga Miljone, both of whom were unchecked by Slovenia’s defence, Lagzdina getting open on the far post to scored off a rebound and Miljone skating into the slot and shooting through traffic.
But Slovenia responded, with Arwen Nylaander redirecting a shot to close the scoring gap. With just eight seconds remaining in the second period, Nadja Vakaricic tied the game on the power play, making a significant impact in what is her first World Championships since 2016.
With no scoring in the third period or in overtime, the winner was determined by a shootout. Latvia’s Linda Rulle scored in the second round and Slovenia’s Sara Confidenti in the third, extending the shootout further. The game was decided in the sixth round; Confidenti scored yet again, deking forehand to backhand, with Dukaric making one final save on Miljone, making Slovenia the first team other than Slovakia to secure two wins in Riga.