IIHF WC Game Day Thread Day 11
by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 10:04 AM EDT
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We have only two days left of qualification round action at the IIHF World Championships, and for some teams today is their last. Slovakia and Finland play each other in early action (10:15 AM EST), with Slovakia desperately needing a win after getting pummeled by Denmark 6-0. Norway's disastorous tournament will come to an end if they fail to get a win against Group F leaders Switzerland in the other early match.
In later action (2:15 PM EST), Denmark can wrap up their first ever top 8 showing at the World Championships (and a spot in the quarterfinals) with a win against a desperate Belarussian squad. Belarus needs a win, and probably a regulation win, to have a shot at advancing. The Czechs and Latvians play the other late game, with both teams tied for the fourth and final quarterfinal spot with Norway, so this is a huge swing game in the standings.
Stick around for some chat about the games! You'll probably have to settle for the IIHF feed, as neither Canada nor the USA are involved in today's action.
For a recap of yesterday's Canada-Sweden game, visit The Copper & Blue.
UPDATE: Norway upsets Swiss, Finland clinches quarterfinal spot
Norway 3, Switzerland 2: 3 goals on 5 first period shots by Norway on former NHL goalie Martin Gerber was all Pal Grotnes needed to hold off the Swiss, despite a severe shot advantage for the Swiss in the game (45-15). The win gives Norway six points, and a legitimate shot at advancing to the quarterfinals as the 4th seed in Group F. The Swiss had already clinched a quarterfinal spot, but no longer have the stranglehold on the top spot in the group.
Finland 5, Slovakia 2: Two offensively anemic clubs faced off against each other, and the Finns were the ones that managed to break out against the Swiss. Jussi Jokinen led the Finnish attack with two goals, while defenseman Petteri Nummelin had a goal and two assists. The win clinches a quarterfinal berth for Finland, as well as a spot for Denmark. Slovakia can still make the quarterfinals with a win against the host Germans tomorrow.
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3-1 Norway after 1 over Switzerland. The Swiss are outshooting Norway 19-5. Wow. Grotnes is standing tall, Gerber is having a horrid game.
Anders Bastianen, Lars Erik Spets, and Mats Zuccarello Aasen have Norway’s goals. Bastianen and Spets assisted on each other’s goals, with Matthis Olimb getting two assists on them as well. Ole-Kristian Tollefson and Anders Fredriksen assisted on Zuccarello’s goal.
Damien Brunner scored for the Swiss, from Roman Josi and tournament star Andreas Ambuhl.
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Go Norway!
I hope we can hold on to the lead, for a small nation like Norway a quarterfinal spot would be great, allthough we have to hope the Czechs beat Latvia which should give it to Norway based on head to head results..
Showings against Latvia and Canada nothwithstanding its been a great tournament for a country with about 6000 active players.
Norwegian media are speculating that both Thoresen and Zuccarello could get NHL offers this summer, any thoughts on that?
And thank you very much for stopping by and signing up! I hope to get some more analysis up tonight… it’s been a busy time for the site with the launch and the full schedule of games, but I hope to post more opinions and news items going forward. :)
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Thoresen has said he wants back in the NHL, and I see no reason why he couldn’t get a contract. He was good enough to play before, and just kind of got squeezed out due to numbers (as in, there is more money for a player like him in the KHL than the NHL due to the salary cap, he was deemed quality enough to play in the NHL). Zuccarello definitely seems worth a shot. You never know for sure until they’re in the NHL, obviously, but he seems to have earned the opportunity.
I was more referring to the suspensions that have made this a bad tournament for Norway. In reality, their standing is about what we expect from them (9-12), and finishing top 8 is still a possibility and would definitely qualify as a success despite all those incidents.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions
Didn’t Zuccarello get snapped up by the Rangers?
Please allow me to adjust my pants, so that I may dance the good time dance, and lead the onlookers and innocent bystanders into a trance.
There was a report, but I don’t think it was ever made official. It’s not registered as far as I can tell.
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0-0 FIN/SVK
Two teams that had scored 9 goals between them heading into this game can’t score against each other, either. Shots are even at 10 after 1.
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2-0 Finland
Two goals in 53 seconds by the Finns. The first was Petri Kontiola from Topi Jaakola and Sami Kapanen, the second is Petteri Nummelin from Riku Hahl.
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3-0 now
Man, this is happening fast.
Jussi Jokinen from Petteri Nummelin and Pasi Puistola. 3:13 after the 2nd goal.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions
Scoreless 2nd period, still 3-1 Norway
The Swiss continue to dominate possession/shot totals, with a 13-6 edge in Period 2. But Grotnes again lives up to his nickname.
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Nickname?
Very tense second period, cant actually watch the game as at work, so following via text updates on a norwegian newspaper…
Ah, English language commentators often play a trick on his last name by referring to him as The “Greatness”. :) He’s well loved by North American media for being a part-time carpenter as well as a quality international keeper.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions
I was one who called him Greatness, although it’s kinda obvious and others may have done the same. Buddy sure plays great whenever I’ve seen him. Sounds like today was no different.
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by Bruce McCurdy on May 17, 2010 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions
I think Dutchie called him that at the Olympics, too.
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Aha, yes, he does seem superhuman at times. The big worry with Norway at the moment seems to be stamina, with the other players running out of steam when the dreaded 3rd period comes around.. Perhaps today being our national day will give them the needed boost..
Also noticed that Norway in particular seems quite rubbish when on a powerplay, never seem to get any shots or pressure.
Ranked 14th out of 16 teams heading into today’s game. And the Swiss haven’t allowed a PP goal against. Oddly enough, the Swiss are one of two teams behind Norway in PP efficiency… they rank 15th, with Germany at 16th.
Norway has the worst special teams in the tournamet… they’re 16h on the PK. But a lot of that has to do with that Canadian beatdown.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Breaking news: Norway kills a penalty!
Must be a first..
Best results today for Norway
Hold on for the regulation win here, and then have Latvia beat the Czechs in OT. Latvia would get eliminated with only 5 points, while the Czechs would have to beat Canada in regulation tomorrow to pass Norway.
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What if the Czech win tonight, and then lose against Canada tomorrow? Hoping for a Latvia win in OT seems a bit far fetched.. :)
Heh, I realize, but a Czech win (in regulation especially) would mean they just have to push Canada to OT tomorrow. That’s why I said “best results”, it’s possible… but not likely.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Canada will be playing to avoid fourth place and a probable (though not guaranteed) quarterfinal match with Russia. The Czechs on the other hand will be playing for their lives tomorrow.
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by Bruce McCurdy on May 17, 2010 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Any other potential NHL players out there?
Are there any other players in this championship that could be potential NHL players, ala Brunstrom and Gustafson coming in without being drafted?
No one hyped to that level this year, that’s for sure. Obviously a couple of KHLers could be brought over, but I’m not hearing many new names in the mix. They’d have to be in the KHL or Elitseren to get a look… or another Finnish goalie.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions
I should mention Stephane Da Costa of France, though. He’s a NCAA player in the USA, so not an European professional. If he were to be signed by a NHL team, he’d almost certainly go to the minor leagues, though. He’s an interesting player… he is getting NHL contract offers. He could wait another year, though.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Nice site!
Jonas Holos is an Avalanche prospect and media reports have him coming over to NA having played out his Eliteserien contract. Based on what many of us at Mile High Hockey have seen of him in the Olympics, this tournament and in the few Eliteserien games we can get access to, he seems to have an even or better shot at playing in Colorado next season.
2009-2010 Colorado Avalanche - Much more gooderer than last year!
3-1 Finland
Tomas Tatar broke Pekka Rinne’s shutout bid. From Tomas Starosta.
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Comon Greatness, keep the swiss out!.
Wonder how far he could have gone had he got the opportunity at a young age to focus on hockey and not be a carpenter on the side!.
Ack, just as I write that its 3-2..
Yep, Julien Vauclair from Matthias Seger makes it 3-2.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Final minute....
Norway hanging on, Gerber pulled.
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Norway hangs on!
Zuccarello took a penalty with 7 seconds left!. But Norway hold on 4 v 6..
3-2 Final, Norway wins
Big win. Tournament is far from over now for the Norge.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions
4-1 Finland
Jussi Jokinen on the PP, from Petteri Nummelin and Antti Miettinen. Miettinen hasn’t done a whole lot this tournament to date.
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The Norway goals were really nice…. this is not good for my Czechs however… hopefully we can muster out a victory against Latvia. I’m not too optimistic about playing Canada 18 hours later after they lost in a very poor effort…. they’ll be out to kill us!
Yeah, this is a terrible result for the Czechs for sure. They need 4 of 6 points against Latvia and Canada… and Canada is angry and getting Stamkos back for the game tomorrow.
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by Bruce Peter on May 17, 2010 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions
Nice win for Norway. Hard to believe they are still in the hunt with a goal differential of -17, but I frankly like their chances at this point of at least making the quarterfinals. The Russians likely await, which could be hide-your-eyes time. I have faith in Greatness to stem the tide for awhile, but …
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by Bruce McCurdy on May 17, 2010 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Even so, an 8th place ranking is a nice boost to the program. Even if it’s based on a couple of lucky performances (bad goaltending by opposition, great goaltending by Grotnes got them their two wins), when you add that with qualifying for the Olympics it shows their program is reaching new heights.
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Yeah, it’s funny how things roll sometimes. I was quite delighted by Norway’s performance in Vancouver, and found their early play here to be disappointing, especially the suspentions. The fact I saw the Greatness-less game and Canada absolutely lit up those other dudes made things seem worse than they appear, and of course the Jakobsen incident happened within that game which was a low moment of the tournament. The 5-0 loss to Latvia couldn’t have been a shining moment either. But, a couple upset wins against middling powers have turned that around, and to be in position to potentially win a tie-breaker despite that -17 suggests that results of other games have fallen out rather well for Norway to this point.
Happy to see in the summary that Patrick Thoresen has assumed the captaincy. The former Oiler is a personal favourite, even though we blew it by letting him get away. He has a couple hundred NHL games in his future IMO.
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by Bruce McCurdy on May 17, 2010 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Norway certainly rely on Grotnes
Shame what happened against Latvia (and to a lesser extent France), but otherwise he has been a rock for us. Small nations like Norway needs a solid goalie in order to compete, otherwise the depth just isnt there.
Belarus
Actually, in relooking at the information, they’re already out. They could get a points tie for 4th with a regulation win vs. Denmark and a Slovakian OT win over Germany, but in that scenario, Slovakia would advance because they would have beaten both Germany and Belarus.
Belarus is playing for world ranking points only now… they can finish anywhere from 9th to 12th.
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Yup, this might end up being the worst Czech team in history… it’s a comedy of errors for the Czechs. Nothing is going right…. even if we do squeak in we get Russia right away. I’m half expecting a loss to Latvia to be honest…. right now, I would say Norways chances of advancement are looking real good!!!
It shows how the depth drops off when your NHL stars don’t show. Right now, there is a very realistic possibility that 3 of the “Big 7” nations won’t even be in the quarterfinals.
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What could really upset the applecart is a Finland win over Russia tomorrow. Unlikely but not impossible, especially in THIS tournament. For all its firepower, the Russians haven’t exactly been piling in the goals, and were hardpressed to win against Germany for example. It seems likely they’re playing possum to some extent and waiting for the big games, and I have half a suspicion they really like the idea of beating Germany 3-2 and Slovakia 3-1 and Kazakhstan 4-1 and Canada 50-0. They’ll surely be loaded for bear for that game if/when it happens.
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by Bruce McCurdy on May 17, 2010 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Actually, if Latvia wins in regulation, Latvia should clinch 4th (pending the Canada/Czech result) ahead of Norway.
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Denmark/Canada?
If Denmark wins today in regulation, and Russia beats Finland tomorrow in regulation, that could be the first round matchup. Denmark could get the Swiss if they finish 3rd.
Canada can’t finish higher than 3rd, although they could finish 4th.
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Norway historical results
10 times Norway has finished in the top 8 at the World Championships, but 8 of those were in the 1950s and 1960s, with a high of 4th in 1951. In 1990, they finished 8th, and they did so again just a couple years ago in 2008.
In 2006, after rejoining the top group for the first time in 5 years, they have finished 11th, 14th, 8th, 11th, and now possibly 8th or better.
Their points counters will be pretty solid going forward for the world ranking, and they should be able to maintain a top 10 spot.
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Denmark-Belarus, 1-0
Less than one minute into the game Denmark scores on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play. Lars Eller passes to Morten Madsen, who passes to Frans Nielsen who moves it back to Eller. Eller scores the goal on a lightning shot.
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I really do believe Eller will be the top Danish player of their current crop of youngsters, although Regin is proving to be quite a good player, too. If I had to choose between Eller and Boedker, I’d choose Eller. But that’s just my own opinion.
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Boedker’s brother Mads is playing this tournament as well, and he’s been extremely solid for us on the blueline. His main problem is his lack of size but he’s extremely capable at winning puck-battles nonetheless.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
1-0 Czechs
After a scoreless first, Tomas Rolinek scores shorthanded from Petr Koukal to give the Czechs the lead.
They outshot the Latvians 16-2 in the first, so they came to play for sure.
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1-1 BLR/DEN
Belarus ties it up. Andrei Stats from Alexei Ugarov and Alexei Kalyuzhny.
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Denmark-Belarus, 1-1
After pushing hard for the equalizer in the latter half of the second period, the efforts of Belarus finally pay off when they put a shot on goal and Andrei Stas is there to pick up the rebound.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
The Danes might prefer to win this game in OT. That would solidify 3rd place in the Group, and give them the #2 seed in Group F for a quarterfinal. Right now, that’s Switzerland (and likely will be the Swiss, unless they upset Sweden tomorrow). If they finish 2nd, it more than likely means Canada in the quarters.
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Yeah, I know. We’ll take it, if it happens, though honestly we’d prefer to win the game in regulation. Even if the means meeting Canada or the Czechs in the quarters :)
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
No shame in bowing out in the quarters, especially after winning 4 games. And hey, you never know… you could still win that quarter.
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I take it you weren’t able to make it down for the games, or are you trying to go for the quarterfinal?
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No, I wrote in an earlier post here that things fell apart with the travel agency at the last minute. they could not provide transportation anyway. Ultimately, I may simply drive down there in my car for the quarters. It’s still about a 7-8 hour drive at least though, so nothing is for certain. But it’s definitely disappointing watching them play on the TV, when you had hoped you would see them in person.
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2-0 Czechs
Yet again! Tomas Rolinek shorthanded from Koukal! Twice in a period!
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2-1 Belarus
Costly late penalty by Morten Madsen for Denmark. The Maple Leaf connection of Mikhail Stefanovich from Mikhail Grabovski scores.
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It wasn’t just costly, it was beyond stupidity. Madsen reaches his stick out on Grabovski, as he skates behind the goal in the Danes’ offensive zone. Completely unnecessary. Especially with the score tied and 2 minutes left in the 3rd.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
Denmark-Belarus, 1-2
Belarus scores on the Power Play with two minutes left in the game. Morten Madsen was called for an extremely stupid interference penalty on Mikhail Grabovski. Mikhail Stefanovich converts it on a pass by Grabovski. Galbraith makes the initial save, but the puck passes in bewteen his arm and body.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
3-1 Czechs
Sergejs Pecura from Kaspars Sauliets to make it close, but just 46 seconds later Roman Cervenka scores from Jiri Novotny to restore the 2 goal lead.
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Andrei Mikhalev and Rusland Salei are both assessed minors giving the Danes 5-on-3 Power Play to even the score for the remainder of the game. High drama.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
Wow. They killed it off. Belarus goes off on a winning note.
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Did Denmark have good pressure on this 5 on 3? It says they didn’t pull Galbraith until there were 13 seconds left. I would think they’d pull him much earlier to get a 6 on 3.
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We had maintained a fairly good offensive pressure in their zone throughout the period. They did get a little too cute on the 5-on-3 with one too many passes though. That said, they certainly came close to tying it. I’m not really sure what happened there at the end. The Danes came back to carry the play in the 3rd and were tantalisingly close to adding another goal. Then in the last 5 minutes or so, they seemed to lose discipline and make a couple of dumb penalties, which served to win Belarus the game. I tip my head to Belarus, nonetheless. They played a good game.
Honestly, the Danish player who continues to impress me the most throughout our games is Patrick Galbraith. He’s been solid and has maintained a save percentage of about 95-96% so far in the tournament including a shutout against Slovakia. Regin too, obviously, since he is our (and the tournament’s) leading scorer. Nevertheless, I had expected Regin to carry the team. I hadn’t expected Galbraith would do the same.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
3-1 Czechs Final
The Czechs must now force OT against Canada to get a quarterfinal berth. Latvia is done, the highest they can finish is 11th.
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Wonderful interview with Morten Green
Wonderful interview with Morten Green (who played his 200th game for Denmark) on Danish television.
He cites disappointment at having lost the last group game and calls it the “game of penalties”. In that we simply took too many and thus managed to completely break our own rhythm. It was telling, he said, that Belarus scored their tying goal immediately after we’d killed off a penalty and their second on the Power Play. When asked about the discrepancy in penalties and possible referee bias (typical sports journalist baiting), Green instead refuses to discuss it and acknowledges that at least the majority of our penalties were clear as day.
"In the depths of winter, I learned there was in me an invincible summer" ~Albert Camus
So...
Germany/Slovakia: winner moves on. If Germany wins, they’ll finish 3rd in the group. If Slovakia wins, Demark will finish 3rd.
Czechs: need OT or regulation win to advance vs. Canada. If they win, they’ll finish 3rd, if they lose they’ll finish 4th. If the Czechs lose in regulation, Norway finishes 4th.
No quarterfinal is figured out as of yet, but we know Belarus and Latvia won’t advance.
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Terrifying when we have to beat Canada to get into the quarters… however, if we win in Regulation we could also finish 2nd believe it or not (Sweden loses to Switzerland, we have head to head). It’s a crazy swing game as we can finish 2nd or 5th.
Somebody asked about players that should be in the NHL… we have 2 on our team: Miroslav Blatak and Tomas Rolinek. Blatak is your classic Euro offensive defenseman. Rolinek plays like a Canadian or Finn and has a tonne of heart! He has 3 shorthanded goals in this tournament and 1 post shorthanded as well…. just gives and gives.
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