Key wins for Denmark and Slovakia

Denmark and Slovakia both took key wins and most likely sent Switzerland and Belarus to the relegation round.

For Denmark their 2-1 win against Switzerland was their first ever three points at the World Juniors. Despite that Switzerland took the lead by Noah Rod Denmark did a good game and it was not undeserved when Soren Nielsen finally put Denmark on the scoreboard early in the third period. And five minutes later the game winner came when Mathias From smashed home a rebound from close range. Switzerland made a good rally with six skaters but missed a great chance in the dying seconds of the game and Denmark to the important win.

The Danish coach Olaf Eller was very pleased with his team and said that his team made a very good third period but had the margins on their side in last minutes. Switzerland suffered today from missing three players for suspensions for their opening game against Sweden and it will now be very hard to avoid the relagation round. They need to take four points in the two games against USA and Canada, it doesn't feel very likely.

In the other group Slovakia defeated Belarus 4-2. The game was even 2-2 after two periods but Slovakia took the lead only 19 seconds into the third period and never lost it again. The goal was scored right off a faceoff with a hard shot by Lukas Hrusik. The 4-2 goal was odd as the puck never hit the net. Slovakia raced against the open net when Belarus netminder Ivan Kulbakov, who made a great game, decided to jump on to the ice to stop the attack. Problem was that no teammate left the ice and when leaving the bench the goalie almost collided with the referee and fell to the ice and hurt himself. However he disturbed Juraj Siska so much that he missed his shot against the empty net but a goal was given anyway due to the penalty call for too many players on the ice when Slovakia raced against the empty net.

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