Slovakia, Czech Republic take next step to knock-out round

Slovakia returns to winning after OT loss

But before the slovaks were ready, they had received a first goal by german forward Manuel Wiederer after 32 seconds, what a start for Germany! Two minutes were left in the first period when Juraj Mily scored the unassisted equalising goal for Slovakia. Period two started with two minor penalties on both sides and in the 35th minute on a 4 on 4 situation Radovan Bondra (not related to Peter Bondra) scored on a pass by Jakub Melisko. With 5 minutes into the last period Kristian Ferletak scored the 3rd goal, assisted by Kristian Pospisil. When only one and half minutes were left to play, Matej Moravcik was assessed with a two minute minor for Tripping. German Coach Jim Setters took a Time-Out and replaced goalie Florian Proske with a 6th attacker but when only 10 seconds were left on the clock Matej Palocko assisted by Jurai Mily scored the empty netter. With this win, Slovakia secured a total of 4 points and now find themselves on top of Group A.

Germany will now face some tough competition against Canada on Saturday.


While both Teams lost their first round games, only Denmark remains without a win

With 4 goals within 9 minutes the Czechs made steamrolled the danish defense and forced Coach Martin Struzinski to an early time out. In minute 7 it was the powerplay formation around Jakub Vrana who scored the opening goal assisted by David Pastrnak. The second goal was scored 4 minutes later by Michael Spacek with assists given to Jakub Zboril and Pavel Zacha. 13 minutes were played when Zacha scored the 3rd goal on passes by Vaclav Karabacek and and Michael Spacek and the 4th and last goal of period one was given to Lukas Volpelka, assisted by Dominik Masin in the 16th minute.

With the beginning of the second period, Coach Struzinski replaced pitiful Thomas Lilie through Mathias Seldrup but it didn't keep Filip Pyrochta to score at 23 minutes of the game. 32 minutes had passed, Alex Rasner assisted by Lukas Volpelka and Jakub Vrana scored the 6th goal and 4 minutes later Vaclav Karabacek ended the scoring in the second period with goal 7 assisted by Michael Spacek and Jakub Zboril.

And with the start of the 3rd period, Denmarks team finally got on the scoreboard with Forward Alexander True scoring on Czech goalie Vitek Vanecek assisted by Mathias Klussmann and Frederik Hoeg but only 4 minutes later Jakub Vrana got the puck passed Seldrup. Another 4 minutes passed and Karabacek who already had 2 assists on his account scored the 9:1. In the 53rd minute Jakub Zboril was assessed with Hooking and Denmark was awarded a penalty shot but Martin Eskildsen couldn't add another goal but the Danes got their chance, scored the second goal 32 seconds before the end of the game. Jeppe Korsgaard who got the pass from Eskildsen finished the game with the score of 9:2.

The danish squad will prepare for their next game against tournament favourite USA in two days and most likely also prepare for the relegation round.

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