Key win for France on election day

Photo: КФХ

France beat Kazakhstan in the key game to avoid relegation from the Helsinki group. For Kazakhstan it will now be very hard to stay in the top division. Games against Belarus, Slovakia, USA, Canada and Finland remain and one win won’t be enough.

France had a 4-2 lead after two periods and when Talgat Zhailauov made it 4-3 on a rebound after only 42 seconds of the third, the French team got nervous. Kazakhstan failed to take advantage of this and instead Pierre-Edouard Bellemare assisted by Anthony Guttig made it 5-3 on a break-away.

Kevin Hecquefeuille’s one-timer at 56:14 for 6-3 killed all hope for Kazakhstan.

The game started with an early powerplay for Kazakhstan when Sacha Treille was sent off for charging but failed to get the early lead. Instead France got a powerplay seven minutes later. Kevin Hecquefeuille took a shot from the blue-line that beat Alexei Ivanov for 1-0.

The second and third French goals were scored with a bit of luck. Besch’s 2-0 shot was intended as a pass but deflected off a Kazakh defender into the net. Sacha Treille scored 3-0 with a great shot, but he got the puck between the circles after some lucky bounces.

After the third French goal Kazakhstan goalie Alexei Ivanov was replaced with the veteran Vitali Yeremeyev. So already in the fourth period of the championship Kazakhstan has used all its three goalies. Vitali Kolesnik started yesterday’s game against Switzerland but was replaced after two periods.

At 17:13 Kazakhstan scored its first goal of the game when Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev made it 3-1 on the powerplay on a nice pass from Dmitri Dudarev behind the net.

Julien Desrosiers made it 4-1 France at 27:49. Yeremeyev saved his first shot, but not the rebound.


Roman Starchenko after the brutal hit to his head.
Photo: КФХ

In the middle of the second period Roman Starchenko got a brutal check to the head by Sacha Treille. Treille got sent off for the game. The Kazakhstan powerplay did not impress but when Laurent Meunier was penalized and they got to play 5-on-3 for two minutes, Fyodor Polishuk managed to get the puck past Cristobal Huet in the French net for 4-2.

 

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