A piece of cake for Romania, a challenging practise for Croatia
14 Apr 2011 | Davide Tuniz
Both table leaders march towards head to head game
After breaking day,
World Championship Division II is back on Zagreb ice offering another chapter in duel between Croatia and Romania to grab the first place and the promotion in Division I. Iceland and Bulgaria open day with an enjoyable game where nordic dominate central period scoring three goals, while Bulgarian win last one, but scoring just twice with two most rapresentative players, Alexei Yotov and Stanislav Muhachev, so Iceland can earn first three points. In second game Romania needs just 24 seconds to open score and the bombing against Ireland: 57 shots and 22 goals are the final result of nothing more then a good training for Tom Skinner's team waiting for the most important game versus Croatia.
Host closes the day facing China in a supposing easy game. Croatia dominates on ice - shots on goal 48-18 - but China resists very well in first period, closed 1-1 after two power play goals by Borna Rendulic and Yingkui Liu. Central period is the key one: Croatia scores three unanswered goals taking decisive advantage, managed in last period despite early goal by captain Weiyang Zhang. Coach Evgeny Levedev bravely pulls goalie Zhiwei Liu trying to equalize in last minutes but Dominik Kanaet freezes the final 5-2 with an empty net goal