Lithuanian U18 team wins promotion

31 Mar 2014 | Henrik Lundqvist

Lithuania wins promotions to Division 1B and Great Britain avoids relegation after a dramatic last game in Dumfries.

The World Under-18 Championship Division 2A was played last week in Dumfries, Great Britain. It was a close competition were both the gold medalist and who gets relegated was decided in the very last game.

Lithuania needed at least one point to get past South Korea and win promotion. The home team Great Britain needed one point to get past Romania to avoid relegation. They both got what they wished for. The game was tied after three periods and after a scoreless overtime period Lithuania won the shoot-out.

"We are obviously so happy to win promotion. It is a great feeling for everyone," Lithuanian coach Andrius Jadkauskas says to IIHF.com.

"I am a very proud coach and, as you can imagine, we have lots of smiles."

Behind Lithuania, who ended the tournament with 12 points, South Korea (10) finished second. Then follow Croatia (9), Netherlands (6), Great Britain (4) and Romania (4).

Romania beat Netherlands 4-0 and was close to beat South Korea in the opener but that wasn’t enough to avoid relegation.

Chong Hyun Lee of Korea was the tournament’s top scorer with 4 goals and 7 assists. The individual award winners were: Vilim Rosandic of Croatia (Best Goalkeeper), Edgar Protcenko of Lithuania (Best Defenceman) and Seong Sik Cho of Korea (Best Forward).