Korea in pole position, Croatia recovers

15 Apr 2015 | Alan Ilijic

After two days in Eindhoven, Korea is at 100% with two wins and holds the peak of the standings. Great Britain comes in second with 5 points and Croatia has 4 in third place.

Estonia - Great Britain 1:2 (0:1, 1:0, 0:1)

Great Britain came to a bit of a shock once again when they fought Croatia for a hard-battled 2-point win in overtime at the tournament opener. Last year Croatia had won 4:0, so the Brits wanted to find reconciliation. The win over Estonia puts them in a good position to seek to advance, should Korea somehow fall in the remainder of the games.

David Phillips opened the score late in the first, while adding up an assist to Robert Farmer in the final frame that sealed the win for the British. Jonathan Weaver collected two assists on the way.

The majority of the first period was marked with penalties, most of them awarded to Estonia. Robert Rooba even had a chance from a penalty shot, but couldn't beat Bowns in the net.

Still, Rooba was the lone scorer for the Estonians, midway through the second.

Croatia - Lithuania 4:1 (0:1, 2:0, 2:0)

An unpleasant surprise and a cold shower followed the game against the Britts for Croatian fans. After falling to the Western Europeans, Lithuania came to the lead first, prolonging the agony.

Ugnius Cizas made his way after two consecutive Croatian powerplays that they weren't able to convert.

As the second period approached, things began going forward for the Croats. In Croatia popularly called "Cronucks", Canadians with Croatian origin, led the way to the first win for their side. Nathan Perkovich marked his second of the torunament midway through the second period and added an assist to Andy Murray at 59:26, who racked one up on empty net to put the final touch on the game.

Andy Sertich, the only American amongst the scorers, brought the lead on a 5-to-3 situation and scored the game-winner just 3 minutes after the score was opened. Mark Dekanich even recorded an assist on the play.

Ryan Kinasewich extended the lead on a powerplay at 46:26 with Sertich and Murray getting the assists.

Thus, Croatia still isn't out of the race for the gold but will need to beat super-strong Korea on their way and hope Britain loses at least two points somewhere.

Korea - The Netherlands 7:1 (2:0, 3:1, 2:0)

Although the hosts of the tournament, Koreans didn't go easy on the Dutch. When someone wants to define a drubbing, that's exactly what Korea did yesterday.

Sanghoon Shin and Minho Cho scored twice in the first period, which practically sealed it for Korea.

Korea was outstanding on powerplay in the second period, having converted twice: Don Ku Lee and Michael Owen Swift scored, Swift added another one minutes later, which marked his 4th of the tournament and proved him as the tournament leader.

He marred the performance with the check to the head in the third period and earned himself a misconduct, but still Korea pulled it off. Lee and Cho added two more in the final frame.

Kevin Bruijsten, a fourth-liner, was the lone scorer for the hosts.

A day-off is scheduled for April 15, the action continues on Thursday when Lithuania takes on Estonia, Korea will play Great Britain in the game of the day, while Croatia will look for points against the hosts.