2013 Women’s Div. II Group B Day 2

04 Apr 2013 | Matthew Cross

Korea only undefeated team, South Africa gets routed by Belgium, Croatia slips by Iceland

The second day of competition left only a single team, the South Korean women undefeated. South Africa struggled heavily against Belgium and Croatia managed to barely scraped by the Icelanders.

Croatia vs Iceland 5-4

The Icelandic team took a lot of penalties in this game, especially late in the game, but they were also heavily outshot 39 to 25. Croatia took advantage of that, scoring 3 powerplay goals. In the first both Siranovic and Filipec scored on the powerplay, and early in the second Kruselj Posavec scored on the powerplay to make it 3-0. Shortly after Shantz-Smiley scored to get Iceland on the board, and Sigurgeirsdottir added another, but Kruselj Posavec added her second of the team to put Croatia back up 4-2. Filipec also added her second with a minute left in the period to make it 5-2. Filipec scored the team's final goal short-handed with 2 players in the box. In the third, Shantz-Smiley scored to bring the team closer, and after a slew of hooking and slashing penalties with only 5 minutes to go Shantz-Smiley scored her third to get a hattrick. Croatia got a late penalty shot, but Kadijevic missed. Due to the penalty back-log, Iceland finished the game on the penalty-kill and was unable to pull the goalie. Matic was +8 on the face-off for Croatia, and Shantz-Smiley added an assist to total 4 points on the night.

Belgium vs South Africa 9-1

This was another lopsided game for South Africa. Outshot 42-16, they could never generate any momentum or offense. It did take Belgium almost the entire first period to get on the board, the first goal came from Frere with only 51 seconds to go in the first, on the powerplay. Once they got started though, they did not stop. Rhode had the loan goal for South Africa, late in the second period, but Belgium got goals from Buret, Bosmans, Cranskens, de Decker, and Morel de Westgaver. After going up 4-0 in the second, Belgium swapped their goalies. South Africa changed the goalie in the third period, but it did little to stem the tide. Jenaer and Clincke added goals for Belgium and de Decker added her second of the game late in the third. Morel de Westgaver, de Decker, and Buret all had 4 points, with Frere going +14 in the face-off circle for Belgium. van Eeckhoven did okay for South Africa going +6 on face-offs.

Spain vs South Korea 0-3

The Korean women seem to like to wait until later in the game to get things going. In the first game, they let Croatia keep a 1-0 lead until the third when they exploded for 4 goals. Against Spain, they remained scoreless through the first two periods before getting three goals. They oushot the Spanish women 35 to 26, including very busy second and third periods. Despite numerous penalties through the first two periods neither team could take advantage. Early in the third, Jo broke the stalemate for Korea with an equal strength goal. Korea suddenly took two penalties and despite a 30 second 5 on 3, Spain still couldn't capitalize. A few seconds after killing off the penalty, Park scored for Korea to make it 2-0. With just under 3 minutes to go Spain called a time-out and pulled their goalie. 20 seconds later, Park added her second of the game to put the Koreans up 3-0. Gurrea continued to do well in the face-off circle going +9, and the team being +23. Despite the dominance, Spain couldn't get anything going against Korea.