photo: © Trushkov Mikhail
Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN – Why not save the best for last?
The inaugural IIHF Ice Hockey Asia Championship came to a close on Saturday in Kazakhstan, with the host team taking on undefeated Japan. The Kazakhs used speed, a balanced attack and superb defending and goaltending to take a 5-1 win and finish atop the round-robin standings.
Kazakhstan and Japan both ended up with two wins and six points, but the Kazakhs won the tournament with the tiebreaker being the head-to-head victory over the Japanese.
Yevgeni Rymarev opened the scoring at 7:16 when a cross-ice pass found its way to his stick. He took a moment to load up and then snapped a hard shot over the shoulder of Japanese goaltender Issa Otsuka. Japan outshot Kazakhstan 12-6 in the first but couldn’t beat Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov.
Rymarev would add another goal in the second and Egor Namestnikov made it 3-0 for the home side late in the middle frame. The pro-Kazakh crowd erupted as their hockey heroes took a three-goal lead into the third period.
Taiga Irikura continued his excellent tournament with Japan’s first goal of the game early in the third to cut into the Kazakh lead. Just over two minutes later, however, Vladimir Grebenshikov restored Kakzahstan’s three-goal lead and pretty much put this game to bed. The winners would add another late in the third.
This inaugural event is meant to promote and grow the game of hockey in Asian countries. Korea finished in third place and China fourth and last.
The host Kazakhs started their road to glory by dropping a 4-1 decision to Korea, but still showed their speed and skill in that game.
That led to a much stronger result in Kazakhstan’s second outing, a 6-1 victory over China. The game was scoreless through much of the first period, but the Kazakhs got a 5-on-3 power play with under four minutes to play. They scored on that man advantage with one of the nicest goals of the tournameny. Dmitriy Grents and Rymarev exchanged several passes behind the Chinese net before Grents passef the puck to a streaking Dmitri Breus, who snuck in from the point and one-timed the puck past China’s goaltender Zehao Sun.
Breus led the Kazakh attack in this game with a hat trick, notching two goals in a six-minute span in the third. At 10:2 of the third, the 20-year-old scored on a hard wrist shot from the point on another power play. Then at 16:52, Breus gave the home crowd more to cheer about when he wired another wrist shot top shelf past the Chinese goaltender. The 6-foot-1 defender, who plays for Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod, will surely remember this game, a resounding win over China and one in which he played a huge role.
Here are some highlights from other games at the event.
The inaugural IIHF Ice Hockey Asia Championship came to a close on Saturday in Kazakhstan, with the host team taking on undefeated Japan. The Kazakhs used speed, a balanced attack and superb defending and goaltending to take a 5-1 win and finish atop the round-robin standings.
Kazakhstan and Japan both ended up with two wins and six points, but the Kazakhs won the tournament with the tiebreaker being the head-to-head victory over the Japanese.
Yevgeni Rymarev opened the scoring at 7:16 when a cross-ice pass found its way to his stick. He took a moment to load up and then snapped a hard shot over the shoulder of Japanese goaltender Issa Otsuka. Japan outshot Kazakhstan 12-6 in the first but couldn’t beat Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov.
Rymarev would add another goal in the second and Egor Namestnikov made it 3-0 for the home side late in the middle frame. The pro-Kazakh crowd erupted as their hockey heroes took a three-goal lead into the third period.
Taiga Irikura continued his excellent tournament with Japan’s first goal of the game early in the third to cut into the Kazakh lead. Just over two minutes later, however, Vladimir Grebenshikov restored Kakzahstan’s three-goal lead and pretty much put this game to bed. The winners would add another late in the third.
This inaugural event is meant to promote and grow the game of hockey in Asian countries. Korea finished in third place and China fourth and last.
The host Kazakhs started their road to glory by dropping a 4-1 decision to Korea, but still showed their speed and skill in that game.
That led to a much stronger result in Kazakhstan’s second outing, a 6-1 victory over China. The game was scoreless through much of the first period, but the Kazakhs got a 5-on-3 power play with under four minutes to play. They scored on that man advantage with one of the nicest goals of the tournameny. Dmitriy Grents and Rymarev exchanged several passes behind the Chinese net before Grents passef the puck to a streaking Dmitri Breus, who snuck in from the point and one-timed the puck past China’s goaltender Zehao Sun.
Breus led the Kazakh attack in this game with a hat trick, notching two goals in a six-minute span in the third. At 10:2 of the third, the 20-year-old scored on a hard wrist shot from the point on another power play. Then at 16:52, Breus gave the home crowd more to cheer about when he wired another wrist shot top shelf past the Chinese goaltender. The 6-foot-1 defender, who plays for Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod, will surely remember this game, a resounding win over China and one in which he played a huge role.
Here are some highlights from other games at the event.
Japan 5, Korea 2
Irikura had a night for the ages with three goals and an assist to pace the Japanese to this Day Two win over the Koreans.Irikura scored a power play goal late in the first and even-strength and power play goals in the second as Japan led 2-0 after one and 4-2 after two.
China 2, Korea 1 (OT)
China ended its tournament on a high note with an overtime victory over Korea. China entered the game at 0-2 with losses to Kazakhstan and Japan.Zesen Zhang was the hero, scoring the game-winning goal 11:45 into overtime.
Japan 4, China 1
In this opening-day clash between neighbouring rivals, China jumped out to a 1-0 lead just over seven minutes into the game when Yuhang Han scored.But that was the lone lead of the game for China, with Japan tying things up seven minutes later with a power play goal from Taisetsu Ushio. Thirty-five seconds later, Masaki Tokoro scored to give Japan a 2-1 lead.
Chikara Hanzawa scored in the second and Sota Isogai added a goal in the third to pace the winners on the opening day of the tournament.
Korea 4, Kazakhstan 1
The host Kazakhs outshot the Koreans 28-20 in their opener but could only find the back of the net once. Alexandr Borissevich scored just under four minutes into the second to tie the game 1-1, but Korea took over later in the period.The eventual game-winning goal came with about five minutes to play in the second. Hohyun Jeong applied pressure on a Kazakh defender at the Kazakh blue line, turned the puck over, and skated in on a breakaway.
He executed a perfect forehand-to-backhand move and flipped the puck past Jelal-ad-din Amirbekov.