A stellar goaltending display from Maxim Pavlenko – making his first start at this level in the absence of Nikita Boyarkin and Andrei Shutov – laid the foundations for the 2-1 success. He had 30 saves from 31 shots, including some big stops, to frustrate Norway’s offence. At the other end, captain Roman Starchenko got the tying goal in the second period before another rookie, Vladimir Volkov, grabbed the winner midway through the third.
Pavlenko was part of Kazakhstan’s 2023 roster but never got on the ice. This season he had limited game time for his club, but proved that he was fully prepared to resist Norway’s onslaught.
“They put pressure on me,” Pavlenko said. “I saw that they were always looking for tricky passes. They got through in the first period. It’s good that they shot wide a couple of times. It was a mix of luck, skill and support from my team.”
Pavlenko’s opposite number, Tobias Normann, was also making his debut. But fulfilling a lifelong ambition ended in frustration as Kazakhstan took the win.
“It’s a big game and I had a lot of expectations before it, so it sucks to end with a loss,” said he 23-year-old Frolunda netminder. “I think we were controlling most of the game. They had their periods where they took over, but they got a bounce off of our defenseman on the second goal there.
“Afterwards, we had everything in the last period, but they got the goal, they got energy from that, and we just couldn’t get the puck in the net. The Kazakhstan goalie played a hell of a game, made some terrific saves. So it’s a tough loss. I think we deserved more.”
The game got off to a scrappy start, with frequent icings preventing either team from establishing much of a rhythm early on. It all added up to a fairly gentle introduction to life at this level for the two rookie goalies.
Norway was the first to settle and created the first real opportunity in the fifth minute when Thomas Olsen fired against Pavlenko’s post before Tamirlan Gaitamirov muscled Petter Vesterheim away from the rebound.
Soon after that, Norway went in front. Pavlenko gave up a big rebound on a shot from Havard Ostrem Salsten. The puck went back to the slot and, after several players from both sides failed to take control of the situation, Johannes Johanneson stepped up to bury it…
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