International Ice Hockey Federation

Russia sweeps in Sweden

Russia sweeps in Sweden

Recaps from the international break

Published 25.04.2017 15:10 GMT+2 | Author Martin Merk
Russia sweeps in Sweden
Russian forward Kirill Kaprizov, captain at the recent World Juniors, also shines with the men’s national team in the Sweden Hockey Games. Photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
Many tournaments and exhibition games were played during the February international break. Let’s have a look at the tournaments

Russia, Switzerland win top events

In the Euro Hockey Tour Russia succeeded by winning all three games of the Sweden Hockey Games and winning the Euro Hockey Tour before the last tournament in the Czech Republic.

The Russians played their first game on home ice in St. Petersburg beating Finland 2-1 before heading to Gothenburg where they won 4-2 against host Sweden and with the same score against the Czechs to claim first place.

The other teams had one win against each other with the Czechs claiming second place after improving their head-to-head goal difference following a 7-1 win against Finland. Sweden finished in third place.

Kirill Kaprizov, who captained his country to World Junior bronze recently, was Russia’s scoring leader with three goals and four points followed by Anatoli Golyshev.

Russia sent men’s teams to two tournaments. While the national selection succeeded in Gothenburg, the B-team, labelled as “Olympic selection”, participated in the Slovakia Cup where it finished in third place. Host Slovakia beat the Russians 6-2 in the semi-final of the opening day after Switzerland had edged Belarus 4-2 in the earlier game.

Switzerland, which also travelled to Nitra with a young team including many who played their first international games, surprised the host in the final game. Damien Riat and Dave Sutter scored two early goals and the Swiss defended the lead for a 4-3 win to claim the trophy. Defenceman Sutter, who was born in Cameroon but moved to Switzerland as a kid, led the tournament in scoring with two goals and three points, same as Slovakia’s Martin Gernat and Russian forward Maxim Kazakov.

Three Euro Ice Hockey Challenge events

The Euro Ice Hockey Challenge consisting of lower-seeded top-division teams as well as Division I nations organized three tournaments during the February international break.

Austria won its tournament in the new arena in Graz on home ice. Raphael Herburger scored the 2-1 overtime winner against Slovakia’s B-team to open the tournament before beating eventual runner-up Norway 2-1 in overtime as well. Lukas Haudum tied the game for Austria with 4:46 left in regulation time and Manual Ganahl scored the game-winner in a shootout. The Austrians sealed the tournament win after beating France 3-1 on the last day. Both goalies played outstanding with Bernhard Starkbaum having a 95.6 save percentage in two games and Lukas Herzog reaching 97.0 in his game. Norway finished in second place ahead of France and the Slovak team.

Korea hosted its EIHC tournament in Goyang in the Seoul region where it hosted a Division I tournament three years ago. It was a tight race with Denmark, Hungary and Korea each winning two games and earning six points while Japan was winless. The Danes started with a 4-2 loss to host Korea in front of a full house with 2,207 fans but bounced back with wins against Japan (6-1) and Hungary (5-1). Denmark needed to beat Hungary with a margin of at least three goals to win the tournament on the last day and did so. Julian Jacobsen scored the 4-1 goal on a two-man advantage in the third period that won his team the tournament, the fifth goal went into the empty net.

The event in Poland included two countries that were promoted to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship one year ago in the same city, Katowice. Slovenia did its job right winning all three games against Poland, Italy and Ukraine with 16-5 goals. Jan Urbas was most successful with four goals and nine points followed by his teammate Miha Verlic scored three goals and notched five points. Host Poland took second place before Ukraine and Italy.

Euro Hockey Tour - Sweden Hockey Games    
9 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Czech Rep. Sweden 2-5
9 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Russia Finland 2-1
11 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Finland Czech Rep. 1-7
11 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Sweden Russia 2-4
12 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Russia Czech Rep. 4-2
12 Feb.   Gothenburg (SWE) Sweden Finland 2-3
           
Standings: 1. Russia 9, 2. Czech Rep. 3, 3. Sweden 3, 4. Finland 3  
Standings EHT: 1. Russia 24, 2. Czech Rep. 12, 3. Sweden 9, 4. Finland 9
           
Slovakia Cup        
10 Feb.   Nitra (SVK) Switzerland Belarus 4-2
10 Feb.   Nitra (SVK) Slovakia Russia B 6-2
11 Feb.   Nitra (SVK) Russia B Belarus 4-1
11 Feb.   Nitra (SVK) Slovakia Switzerland 3-4
           
Standings: 1. Switzerland, 2. Slovakia, 3. Russia B, 4. Belarus  
           
Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Austria      
9 Feb.   Graz (AUT) France Norway 1-4
9 Feb.   Graz (AUT) Austria Slovakia B 2-1 OT
10 Feb.   Graz (AUT) Slovakia B France 1-3
10 Feb.   Graz (AUT) Austria Norway 2-1 SO
11 Feb.   Graz (AUT) Norway Slovakia B 2-1
11 Feb.   Graz (AUT) Austria France 3-1
           
Standings: 1. Austria 7, 2. Norway 7, 3. France 3, 4. Slovakia B 1  
           
Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Korea      
5 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Hungary Japan 2-1
5 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Korea Denmark 4-2
6 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Japan Denmark 1-6
6 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Korea Hungary 2-5
7 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Denmark Hungary 5-1
7 Feb.   Goyang (KOR) Korea Japan 3-0
           
Standings: 1. Denmark 6, 2. Hungary 6, 3. Korea 6, 4. Japan 0  
           
Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Poland      
6 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Italy Ukraine 3-4 OT
6 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Poland Slovenia 1-4
7 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Poland Ukraine 3-2 SO
7 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Slovenia Italy 6-2
8 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Ukraine Slovenia 2-6
8 Feb.   Katowice (POL) Poland Italy 4-1
           
Standings: 1. Slovenia 9, 2. Poland 5, 3. Ukraine 3, 4. Italy 1  

 

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