A brave victory

Estonia has maybe the last chance to escape from relegation facing the irregular Croatia, plague by injuries: four players aren’t in the roster today: Dario Kostovic, Dominik Kanaet, Geoff Waugh and Alan Letang. Estonia coach Jussi Tupamaki chooses Villem-Henrik Koitmaa in the net, while Don MacLean has only three lines in hand. To get things worse, at 07:30 captain Marko Ljubic must be carried out after a rough charge.

After seven minutes another injury: captain Marko Ljubic leaves the ice: he will be back in third period

One minute before Andrei Makrov had opened the score for Estonia on Mike Auksi pass. At 09:09 a malicious diagonal shot by Artur Fedoruk doubles the score for Estonia. Coach MacLean calls a time-out, absolutely necessary to clear the mind.  The words of the coach have an immediate effect because Croatia scores at 11:28 after a nice tic-tac-toe between Andy Sertich and Ryan Kinasevich, finished from the latter. At 16:49 Dekanich is decisive in rebounding a deflection by Jastrebov while Estonian fans already celebrate the goal. Croatian goalie works a lot also in the last minutes of period, with Estonia on power play.

Croatia try to take advantage of a power play at the beginning of second period, but Koitmaa is reactive on Kinasevich and Blagus. Estonia is less enterprising so Croatia finds the second goal with a shot by Perkovich after a nice wrap-around by Blagus. Good move but Koitmaa isn’t perfect in placement. Estonian goalie redeem yourself at 27 when perfectly rebounds a dangerous shot by Perkovich, at 29 when stops a solo by Kinasevich and at 30 deflecting with the leg on Milicic. Estonia appears again one minute later with a missile by Auksi, controlled by Dekanich and at 32 with a diagonal by Sorokin. After a nice save by Koitmaa on Blagus, Estonia has a great chance at 35 when Karik steals a puck and is one-to-one with Dekanich but wastes shooting on goalie. Croatia completes the comeback at 39 when Estonian defence forgets Matija Milicic alone and for the forward it’s easy to tap in a pass from Sertich

Croatia third goal, scored by Matija Milicic

Estonia produces the maximum effort in first minutes of last period with a constant but inaccurate pressure without real dangerous situation for Dekanich. When the pressure weaken Kinasewich scores the fourth goal after an insisted work by Murray behind the gate, a goal that probably means relegation for Estonia. With 3 minutes to play coach Tupamaki calls a timeout and pulls Koitmaa trying desperately a goal to reopen the match but a stubborn move by Murray results in the final empty net goal

MVP: Kevin Parras – Ryan Kinasewich

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