Entering the final day of the 2024 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A in Bolzano, Slovenia had already secured advancement but three teams still vied for the second spot and two had a chance to be relegated. But with each passing game, more became clear and in the end, Hungary will join Slovenia at next year’s World Championship in Sweden while Korea will be relegated to Group B for the first time since 2015.
Romania 4 – Japan 2
After losing their first two games by 6-1 scores, Romania looked like an obvious candidate for relegation, but three wins later and they skated off the ice after their last game against Japan with still a faint hope to advance to the elite group. That didn’t end up happening, but it was a remarkable turnaround nonetheless.
“I don’t think many people believed in us,” said Romanian captain Roberto Gliga. “It’s certainly a big, big surprise, I think everyone can agree on that. I think it’s clear we surpassed our expectations.”
Gliga scored the game’s first goal, putting a nice mid-air deflection on a shot from Yevgeni Skachkov at 4:26. Then the two teams traded goals late in the first period. Sota Isogai tied it for Japan when he circled the net and his centring pass attempt hit a Romanian skate and went in, but Skachkov got that goal back just 18 seconds later, putting a nice finishing touch on a feed from Huba Bors.
Japan tried to push back in the second period but Romania scored the only goal to go up 3-1 on a nice rush into the zone, with Szilard Rokaly putting a nice backhand deke on Yuta Narisawa to finish it off. Down by two goals, the Japanese emptied the tank in the third period, outshooting Romania 15-2 but Zoltan Toke was brilliant. Yu Sato scord on a rebound with 3:38 to play to make it a one-goal game, but Matias Haaranen iced the victory for Romania with a late empty-netter.
“I liked how hard we competed,” said Japanese coach Jarrod Skalde. “We wanted to come out skating but every time we grabbed momentum, they seemed to score. We had to keep fighting to get the momentum back but, overall, I liked our compete and how we skated today.”
The loss left Japan with a razor-thin one-point lead on Korea in the race to avoid relegation. Looking ahead to the next game, Skalde said: “I’ve never been such a fan of Italy in my life.”
Italy 8 – Korea 1
As it turned out, Skalde and the Japanese team didn’t have to sweat it out very long, as Italy struck early and often to lead…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Rss News…