Finns, Russia win on Day 5

Press Release

Finland – Denmark 5-1 (1-0, 2-1, 2-0)

BRNO – Finland held Denmark to one goal and scored five of their own, winning their third preliminary round game 5-1 and staying in the hunt for the top seed in Group A. Denmark is headed to the relegation round after dropping all four of their preliminary round games.

Following a goal by Samu Markkula in the first period, Finland jumped ahead 3-0 with a pair of goals by Artturi Lehkonen. The Danes responded with a score by Matthias Asperup, but failed to close the deficit any further. Rasmus Kulmala and Henri Ikonen rounded out the scoring for the Finns in the third period.

Thanks to their win over Canada, the Finns are in the middle of the playoff hunt and could still technically claim the top seed. Finland has one final preliminary round game against the Czech Republic. If the Finns win that game, and the Canadians beat the US in their final game, there will be a three-way tie at the top of the standings, where the winner will be decided by goal difference.

With the loss, Denmark is now set to play in Znojmo in the relegation round on Thursday.

Russia – Switzerland 6-0 (1-0, 2-0, 3-0)

ZNOJMO – Russia came into their game agaisnt the Swiss looking to make amends from a weekend upset at the hands of Germany and desperately needing a win to stay in the playoff hunt. Thankfully for them Switzerland was willing to oblige, giving up six unanswered goals in a 6-0 shutout.

Despite being fairly even in the shots category through most of the game, the Swiss could not put any pucks past Russian goaltender Andrei Vasilevski. Nikita Zadorov scored the opening goal off of a one-timer from Vyacheslav Osnovin at 3:37 in the first period. Anton Slepyshev and Bogdan Yakimov followed up with markers of their own in the second frame.

Alexander Barabanov, Danil Zharkov and Alexander Delnov scored in the third to complete the shutout.

Russia now has one final preliminary round game, going up against Group A leaders Sweden. If the Russians win that game then they have a chance to take the top seed and skip the quarter-finals.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)