WJC18 Division 1A Day 4 recap

The fourth day of competition saw the Kazakhs face the Ukrainians to start the day. If the first ten minutes offered an equal fight between the two formations, the Kazakhs broke the ice with a goal thanks to Alexander Kim (1-0). The Ukrainian hope remained until the return of the locker room where the second third was fatal for them. Ruslanuly increased the gap at the beginning of the period (2-0) then Lyapunov increased the gap a few minutes later (3-0) before Simonov (4-0) and Sitnikov (5-0) buried definitively the hopes of points synonymous with maintenance for the Ukrainians. The third period was only a formality where the tension went up a notch. The Kazakhs bounce back after their failure against the Danes and can still hope to win the tournament. For the Ukrainians, their maintenance will pass by the obtaining of points this Saturday during the last day.

There was no need to arrive late for the second match of the day between the Hungarians and the Japanese. Krisztian Franyo started the game less than two minutes after the initial commitment (1-0) but Okubo answered him in the same time (1-1). As expected, the debates remained balanced until mid-game when Mihalik gave the advantage back to Hungary with a deflection in the enclave (2-1).the two Hungarian scorers offered themselves a double in the last third to dig the advantage with ten minutes to play (3-1 then 4-1). Fuji Suzuki reduced the gap on the power play (4-2) but the Japanese were too short to turn the game around. With this victory, the Hungarians obtained their maintenance and can still dream of gleaning a medal in case of favorable results on Saturday.

To conclude the day, France faced Denmark. In a game with multiple stakes, the French opened the score on the first action of the game, thanks to their best player, Mattis Chapuis (0-1). The best player of the competition, Oscar Moelgaard, equalized and gave himself an 8th point in the tournament (1-1) and his teammate at Husqvarna, Albert Schioldan, gave his team the lead at the end of the first third (2-1). But the Blue Jacks had not said their last word and Noa Besson, one of the cadets of the competition, equalized giving hope to his team (2-2). The third period offered to the public a fierce fight for the victory but the goaltenders did their best to send the game to overtime. Mattis Chapuis was sent off for kicking with only one second left in regulation time and the Danes were on the power play for most of the overtime. If the French try to hang on, Anton Linde is right to Martin Neckar and offers the victory to his team (3-2). The Danes and the French no longer have their destiny in hand and must rely on favorable results to hope to triumph, each at their level.

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