Division IA championships in Cracow, Poland

The most important thing about this arena is the capacity, it could be over 14 000 spectators on one match. It's the most modern multifunctional arena in the whole Europe. Earlier with great success in Krakow Arena was realized great events as Volleyball World Championships and many concerts. First test for playing hockey in this arena was established in December 2014, when in Arena had been played the final tournament of Polish Cup, this event was a great success. Organizers had big trouble to prepare a good ice rink, because of Robbie Williams, but finally Polish dreams came true and the rink was perfectly done in just one day. When it all was ready we finally could start the most hopeful championships.

Day 1

The first day brought us glorious emotions. 

Exactly at 1PM started the first match of the tournament. Hungary played with the always dangerous team of Japan. First and second periods were tied 1:1, so after two periods we had a tied score 2:2, everything was decided in third period, Hungarians then scored twice, one in powerplay and the second was an empty netter. The first match of 2015 IIHF div. IA was won by the team of Hungary, supported by 3000 fans who came for the Cracow's championships.

JAPAN - HUNGARY 2:4 (1:1,1:1,0:2)

The second game was like a fight of David and Goliath. The favorite of this championships team of Kazakhstan played with ruined by political situation Ukraine. There was no surprise, for 5 goals for Kazakhstan, Ukrainians replied only twice in the third period. Kazakhs started their journey to the world elite with an easy win 5:2 against Ukraine

KAZAKHSTAN - UKRAINE 5:2 (2:0,1:0,2:2)

Third most expected game by the host supporters was a battle between Italy and Poland. Poland started this game very bravely, but they seemed to be a little bit chaotic and scared. These things made Italy score the first goal, after a quick counter attack the Italians opened the scoring with a quick wrist shot of Brian Ihnacak. With time the Poles were playing better and finally in the second period Grzegorz Pasiut scored a goal after a perfect pass from behind the goal of Sebastian Kowalowka. When the Poles established their game, things got much worse, Poles were playing powerplay, then after a fatal error of Rafal Dutka, Anton Bernard made it through to the clear position and scored a goal shorthanded. Third period was very close, the one thing everyone will remember is the brutal foul by Polish goalkeeper Rafal Radziszewski for which he was sent off. The Italians started the championships with a close win against Poland 1:2. 

POLAND - ITALY 1:2 (0:1,1:1,0:0)

Day 2

The second day started with the game between Kazakhstan and a very ambitious team of Hungary. From the start Hungarians were playing very hard and often got penalties, that wasn't good tactics against such a strong team. For the entire game the Kazakhs were scoring goals in powerplay. It went really bad for Hungary, the game ended with the score 5:0. Kazakhs continued their road to 2016 World Championships with another easy win. 

KAZAKHSTAN - HUNGARY 4:1 (1:0,3:0,1:0)

The second game of the second day was the match between Italy and Ukraine. This was a very good fight. For goals we had to wait until the second period. First Brian Ihnacak scored for Italy, shortly after the Ukrainians equalized by a goal of Viktor Zakharov. The third period also was goalless. The game went on to overtime for the first time in this championship. It wasn't really long, just 16 seconds after the start of the overtime the Italians scored and won the game 2:1. 

ITALY - UKRAINE 2:1 (0:0,1:1,0:0,1:0)

The evening game between Poland and Japan was really a battle for each centimeter of the ice. After two goalless periods with lots of chances, the third period began with the first Polish powerplay of the game. They played it very well and Tomasz Malasinski could celebrate the first goal of the Poles, next minutes brought furious attacks of Japan, but the Poles scored a second goal. After a shot of Mateusz Rompkowski Marcin Kolusz touched it before the goalie and made it 2:0. To the end of the game nothing changed and the hosts won their first game of this tournament. 

JAPAN - POLAND 0:2 (0:0,0:0,0:2)

Day 3

After a day of rest the first teams which we were watching were Kazakhstan and Japan. Kazakhs again made use of every mistake of the Japanese defence. For all the game Kazakhstan was fully controlling the score. After the first period in which Kazakhstan scored three goals, the second period was goalless. In the third period we had seen a real exhibition, this period ended with the score 4:2 for Kazakhstan. The game the Kazakhs won 7:2 and clearly destroyed Japan. 

KAZAKHSTAN - JAPAN 7:2 (3:0,0:0,4:2)

The second game was very important for both teams. It was a battle between Hungary and Italy. The first period was view of a perfect game of the Hungarians, they scored twice. The second period was goalless but full of chances. In third period the Hungarians scored a third goal, shortly after that the Italians scored their first goal, and it was everything from Italy this day. At the end Hungary scored a fourth goal to the empty net, and won the very important game with Italy 4:2. 

ITALY - HUNGARY 1:4 (0:2,0:0,1:2)

The Poles also had very important game this evening, they played with the Ukrainians. A first period full of fighting ended without goals. In the second the Poles finally scored shorthanded. The goal was scored after a perfect counter attack and finished by Adam Baginski. In the beginning of the third Poland had a 2-man powerplay, they really did use that and Mateusz Rompkowski made it 2:0. Again the Poles had moments of chaos, very quickly in two minutes Ukrainians Vladyslav Gavryk and Vitali Lyalka tied the game. It was Poland to score the last goal. In a perfectly played powerplay Mateusz Rompkowski scored again for his team, and the Poles celebrated the first win over Ukraine in a World Championship game. This win made the Poles safe from relegation.

POLAND - UKRAINE 3:2 (0:0,1:0,2:2)

Day 4

The first match of the fourth day between Japan and Italy brought us the first surprise of this tournament. The favorite team of Italy had big troubles from the beginning but in the end of the first period they've finally scored. In the second the Japanese made it a draw. The third period was started better by Italy, but the end of it was controlled by Japan, two goals in two minutes made the first surprise of the tournament real. 

ITALY - JAPAN 2:3 (1:0,0:1,1:2)

The second game was a struggle between Ukraine and Hungary. Ukrainians as earlier Japanese wanted to surprise. After 35 minutes of the game they were leading 2:0, then the Hungarians started to play, they've scored first just before the second. And they made a return by 3 goals in the third period. This win put the Hungarians in a good place in the race for promotion. 

HUNGARY - UKRAINE 4:2 (0:0,1:2,3:0)

Favourite Kazakhstan was playing against the hosts of the tournament, Poland, in the third game of this day. The first period ended goalless but surprisingly with advantage of shots on goal of the Polish team. The second period brought powerplay goals : first made by Roman Savchenko, Poles replied with a 2-man powerplay goal by Bartolomiej Pociecha. Shortly after the equalizer from Poland the Kazakhs scored second after a disaster mistake of the Polish defence. In the third period the Poles once more equalized by Marcin Kolusz’s tricky shot, but four minutes before the end the Kazakhs scored the decisive goal made again by Roman Starchenko. The Kazakhs won this match but that was the most difficult game in the tournament. Kazakhs won promotion and Poles showed very good hockey and left very good impression. Despite this loss Poland still have chance for the historical promotion.

POLAND - KAZAKHSTAN 2:3 (0:0,1:2,1:1)

Deciding games for these tournament will take place on Saturday. Ukraine will play with Japan in the battle of remaining in div. IA, Italy will play with Kazakhstan, and Poland will play against Hungary for promotion.

Table after the fourth day

1. Kazakhstan 12 p.    
2. Hungary 9 p.    
3. Poland 6 p.    
4. Italy 5 p.      
5. Japan 3 p.      
6. Ukraine 1p.

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