IIHF – Ukraine bounces back big

In a matchup of two teams that each earned a point in their first games yesterday, Ukraine got into the win column with a 7-0 victory over Serbia.

Vadym Mazur led the Ukrainian offence with two goals and two assists. With a goal and two assists, defender Igor Merezhko now leads the tournament with seven points. After entering yesterday’s game against China in relief and stopping seven of eight shots, Bogdan Dyachenko made 10 saves for the shutout.

After Arsenije Rankovic’s busy game yesterday against Estonia, Akim Paladica was given the start against Ukraine but Serbia’s strategy remained the same – play stingy defence and wait for chances to counter-attack. It worked for the first period, in which Ukraine outshot Serbia 17-5, the most dangerous off the stick of defender Pylyp Pangelov-Yuldashev through traffic, hitting a screened Paladica.

Ukraine finally opened the scoring at 26:27 when Mazur carried the puck into the zone and found the stick of Danil Trakht, who was streaking to the net for the re-direction.

Just 2:20 later it was 2-0 when Ukraine struck on the power play. Paladica stopped Olexander Peresunko’s initial shot but was down and out as Mazur to put in the rebound.

Serbia’s chances for a comeback were dealt a serious blow late in the second period when Mirko Djumic, who has scored the team’s last five World Championship goals dating back to last year, was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for kneeing Yevgen Fedeyev. Fedeyev left the ice unable to put any weight on his right leg but returned in the third period.

Ukraine broke it open in the third period. Mazur scored his second of the game by tucking it inside the near post to make it 3-0 and then power-play goals by Andri Denyskin and Peresunko made it 5-0 by the period’s halfway mark. Ukraine somewhat backed off the offence at that point but Denys Bordai and Merezhko added late goals to make the final score 7-0.