Both hosts lose on Ivan Hlinka opening day

The 2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament has one group in Piestany (Slovakia) and one group in Breclav (Czech Republic). In the Piestany group Canada beat Switzerland 4-1 and Sweden beat the home team Slovakia 7-3.  In Breclav Russia got a 2-1 shootout win against USA and Finland beat Czech Republic 2-1. The first two teams of each group will qualify for semi finals while team three and four will play placement games.

Switzerland-Canada 1-4

The day started with a 4-1 win for Canada, chasing a fifth straight gold medal at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial, against Switzerland. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists but it was Switzerland that took the lead. Tim Wieser made it 1-0 at 8:15. Curtis Lazar tied it for Canada at 15:45 and with 11 seconds remaining of the first period Nathan MacKinnon maed it 2-1. Nicholas Ritchie scored the only goal of the second period for 3-1. Yan-Pavel Laplante closed the scoring at 4-1 14 seconds before the end of the game. Canada got a lot more penalties that Switzerland and the Swiss team outshot the Canadian 31-25.

"We had nine penalties in this game and we really have to cut down on that," Canadian head coach Todd Gill said to hockeycanada.ca. "A lot of them were stick penalties where the defenceman has a man going wide and gives him that little tap that we're used to doing but it hits the other player's stick and we're in the box all night."

Slovakia-Sweden 3-7

In the second game in Piestany the home team Slovakia lost 7-3 to Sweden. Victor Krus Rydberg and Robert Hägg scored for the Swedes in the first period. Victor Öhman and Tobias Liljendahl scored 0-3 and 0-4 early in the second period and the game was pretty much decided already at 24:18. Adam Kasanicky got Slovakia on the sheet in the middle of period two but André Burakowsky restored the Swedish 4-goal lead a few minutes later. In the third period the teams scored two goals each; Jacob de la Rose and Alexander Henriksson (penalty shot) for Sweden and Robert Lantosi and Simon Betak for Slovakia.

"The Swedes were throughout the game very strong with the puck, excellent technical skill and fully deserved the win", says Slovak coach Anton Bartánus.

USA-Russia 1-2 (SO)

Sergei Tolchinsky got the game-winning goal in the shoot-out when Russia beat USA 2-1 in the first game in Breclav. After a scoreless first period Justin Bailey gave USA the lead at 21:03. The American lead would stand until 46:18 when Pavel Buchnevich tied it. In the overtime USA got a penalty shot at 1:14 but Adam Erne failed to score. Both goalies played well. Thatcher Demko in the American net made 38 saves while Russia’s goalie Nikita Serebryakov saved 36 shots.

"We played hard and competed in a hard-fought game," said Matt Herr, head coach of the USA to usahockey.com.  "We're going to get our rest, make small adjustments to our game and get ready to go again tomorrow night."

Czech Republic-Finland 1-2

Finland got a perfect start against Czech Republic. Jonatan Tanus scored after only 19 seconds and four minutes later Janne Puhakka scored the second Finnish goal. Finland scored no more goals but these two were enough for the win. Jiri Kepka scored the only Czech goal in the second period.

Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament continued tomorrow with the games Canada-Sweden, Russia-Finland, Slovakia-Switzerland and Czech Republic-USA.

2012 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Group A (Piestany)

#	Club	G	W	L	Score	P
1	Sweden	1	1	0	7:3	3
2	Canada	1	1	0	4:1	3
3	Switzerland	1	0	0	1:4	0
4	Slovakia	1	0	0	3:7	0

2012 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Group B (Breclav)

#	Club	G	W	W-OT	L-OT	L	Score	P
1	Finland	1	1	0	0	0	2:1	3
2	Russia	1	0	1	0	0	2:1	2
3	USA	1	0	0	1	0	1:2	1
4	Czech Republic	1	0	0	0	0	1:2	0

 

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