Serbia defeats Australia, Croatia humiliated Iceland

Australia - Serbia 3:5 (1:2, 0:3, 2:0)

Serbia earned another victory with their great second period performance. Three goals to break Australians, who in the end couldn't come back. Serbs opened the scoring when Brkušanin beat Kimlin at 16:49 on a powerplay. Australia strikes back at 19:16 through Powell, but thirty seconds later Sretović gets Serbia back in the lead.

Ristić, Milovanović and Luković scored three times in a span of 13:26 during the second period which put Australia in an ancillary position from which they couldn't come back. The defeat was alleviated in the final period that was marked by penalties, 24 minutes were accumulated for both teams. Powell with 5-on-3 and Scott Stephenson minced the bitter defeat.

Spain - Belgium 3:6 (0:3, 0:1, 2:2)

Vincent Morgan earned the title of best player recording five points, a hattrick and two assists. Mitch Morgan added four (1G, 2A) and Lorenzo Maas was the only one to score besides the brothers. Belgians started strong and built up a respectable lead. In only three minutes at the end of the period Morgans recored a goal each and Lorenzo Maas added the third one. At 26:36 Mitch Morgan passed to Vincent Morgan who dribbled the goalie to increase the lead to four. Spain answered with two quick goals in the third. First Munoz scored with two extra men and then Gonzales on a powerplay cuts the lead to only two, and Spain raised some hopes at that moment. Not for long; ten minutes later Morgans executed an action that led to another goal, while two minutes later Mitch Morgan picked an assist to Geerts who scores the game-winner. Spain managed to reduce it to three through Martinez a minute later.

"We started strong, scored three goals in the first, they came back with two extra men, but when we were even we showed a performance that won us the game. We're looking forward to rest tomorrow and getting ready for Australia and Croatia", Niki Deherdt shared his thoughts with us.

Asked if Belgium could match up against Croatia, he added: "If everyone is ready on Saturday and we give our best we can beat any opponent here and get the gold."

Croatia - Iceland 6:1 (1:0, 0:0, 5:1)

Mate Tomljenović in Croatian net was so unlucky to concede two minutes before the end of the game. Alengaard was the lone scorer for Iceland and didn't let Tomljenović get a shutout.

The first period went peacefully. At 11:35 Borna Rendulić had a chance to bring Croatia ahead from a penalty shot, but terrific Icelandic goalie Dennis Hedstrom was sharp. Three minutes later Andy Sertić brought Croatia in the lead, Marko Lovrenčić and John Hečimović were on the assist.

The second period was even more eventless. The only thing that occured was Palsson's penalty for slashing midway through the period.

A goal fest in the final one! First, thirty seconds into the period, a goal for Croatian side was disallowed as the net came loose. In just ten minutes Croatia scored four consecutive goals and broke Iceland into segments. Blagus, Lovrenčić, Kanaet and Hečimović caused Hedstrom to skate out and be replaced by Sigurbergsson in net.

"I think Iceland was tough to break mainly owing to their goalie's performance. Maybe even more by us shooting directly into him, and less his ability to save", said Marko Šakić, who saw his senior team debut on this championship.

"It's a great feeling, playing at home again, in front of home crowd. The guys help me a lot, and we'll continue our mission to take the gold", KAC's young Croatian prospect said.

The change didn't help, at 56:48 Tomislav Čunko scores again while Iceland was totally broken apart.

Thursday is the day off and the tournament continues on Friday with Iceland vs. Spain followed by Belgium vs. Australia and the game of the night at 20:15 CET, Croatia vs. Serbia.

The current rankings are a follows:

1. Croatia 9 (+11)

2. Belgium 9 (+10)

3. Serbia 6 (-1)

4. Iceland 2 (-7)

5. Australia 1 (-5)

6. Spain 0 (-8)

LEGEND: Team, points, goal difference

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