U20 World Championship Division 2 Group B – Day 2

Australia vs Iceland 3-5

Iceland’s Sigurdarson continued to shine in the second game against Australia. He controlled the first period scoring 2 goals for Iceland. In the second he added another to give himself a hattrick. Bergmann, and Thorsteinsson also scored for Iceland in the second. McKenzie got Australia’s first goal of the tournament mid-way through the period. After 2 periods the shots were almost even but Iceland had a 5-1 lead. In the third, Australia came out hard. Outshooting Iceland 17-4 but Eyland stood tall and allowed only 2 goals, one short handed and one on the power play. Australia pulled the goalie with 30 seconds left, but it was not enough time to score further. Leifsson and Gudnason both struggled in the face-off circle for Iceland going -6. Sigurdson added an assist to get 4 points and Leifsson had 3 assists for Iceland. McKenzie and Humphries each had a goal and an assist for Australia.

South Korea vs Belgium 6-2

Korea ran all over Belgium in this game. Outshooting them by a 3-to-1 margin of 66 to 22. Though the game remained close only by the play of Bruyninckx, the Beglian netminder. Park scored first for Korea mid-way through the first period, but Mondelaers tied it up late in the period on the powerplay with Hwang off for hooking. In the second, Yu had the lone goal for Korea. Belgium was heavily penalized in the period but Korea was unable to capitalize on any of them.

In the third a torrent of goals decided the game. Korea scored just 23 seconds into the period on the powerplay to make it 3-1. Midway through the period the teams exchanged 3 goals in just over 2 minutes, with Korea getting 2 of them. de Smet scored for Belgium, but Korea got goals from Yoon and Lee. Yoon added another a few minutes later. Yoon and Shin each had 4 points for Korea and Swinnen had 2 assists for Belgium. Swinnen also did well going +5 on the face-offs for Belgium.

Estonia vs Serbia 9-0

Estonia simply man-handled Serbia through-out this game. A very lopsided first period which saw Estonia out-shooting Serbia 18-2 set the pace for the rest of the game. Estonia had 3 goals from Kulakov, Gurtovoi and Gornostajev. In the second period Gornostajev added his second goal and Rooba also scored on the powerplay. Ljubobratets took a 10 minute misconduct for checking to the head and neck area. Despite more power play time Serbia still could not muster a goal. In the third period, Estonia continued to roll over Serbia getting 4 goals from Taru, Gurtovoi, Missenjov and Gornostajev added his third for a hat trick. With only 11 seconds to go in the game and up 9-0 Ljuboratets took a 20 minute game misconduct for checking from behind. While games may be heated and intense, it is extremely unlikely that in a blow-out game like this with only seconds to go that he would genuinely need to find himself in that position. With two misconducts in a game for two dangerous hits, he may find himself sitting out the next game.

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