Austria, Japan and Slovenia fight for two spots

24 Apr 2014 | Henrik Lundqvist

The winner and the runner-up of the World Championship Division 1A will be promoted to the elite division. With one day to go three teams are still in the race.

Slovenia, Austria and Japan all won on the fourth day of the World Championship Division 1A. The three teams will fight for the two first spots that mean promotion. Korea will be relegated after yet another loss. They will next year be replaced with Poland who won Division 1B.

The last day will start with the game Hungary-Japan. A Japanese win there and they win promotion as Austria and Slovenia play each other in the second game. The winner there wins promotion. Austria can also be promoted if they lose as long as Japan loses.

Slovenia got a 5-3 win over Ukraine today, but it could have ended worse. They were down 3-2 early in the last period but with goals by Ales Music, Jan Mursak and Bostjan Golicic they turned the score to a win.

Austria was also in trouble. After half the game they were down 2-0 to Hungary. After 60 minutes the score was 4-4. Brian Lebler got Austria the win with a shot close to the post.

Japan won the Asian clash against the home team Korea after a great start. At 11:08 Japan already had a 3-0 lead after two goals by Hiroki Ueno and one by Seiji Takahashi. Aaron Keller got the fourth Japanese goal before Korea reduced the score twice in the third period.