WC: Division I: Congrats to Austria and Slovenia

[chaosof99*]

Weird, I thought I'd find a thread about the Division 1 games which concluded yesterday in this forum.

The A group came down to the final game between Austria and the Ukraine as both teams had 4 wins. Austria shut out the Ukraine for 50 minutes which is pretty amazing to do against a team that score 9.5 goals per game until then. That goal tied the game but two minutes later the Austrians scored again. Austria held a lead for all but 4 minutes of the entire game and in the end won 2-1 to clinch the promotion to the Championship round next year.

In the B group a similar situation unfolded between Hungary and Slovenia, the winner being promoted. Slovenia scored in the first minute but a shorthanded goal at 8:37 tied it. The tie would hold until late in the 2nd period when Slovenia scored again. Another goal early in the 3rd and another halfway through the period gave Slovenia the 4-1 win and the promotion.

Serbia and Croatia on the other hand went winless and are being relegated to Division II and are being replaced by Estonia and Spain (to the surprise of everybody involved).

Click to read more...

 

[Purple hippo]

Congrats to both countries, maybe next year we will see Kopitar playing for Slovenia.
For the promotions into Division I, being Latvian very happy to see Estonia moving up and very surprised Spain was promoted. Will be interesting to see how they do next year, hopefully they keep up the good work.

As for the Austria-Ukraine game, I wasnt able to watch and had to use the IIHF Live ticker and everytime I looked, Ukraine took a penalty. After looking at the scoresheet, they took a total of 76 minutes, 50 alone came in the 3rd.
For anybody who actually watched the match, was Ukraine really that undisciplined or really cheap calls?

 

[Elvs]

Cool to see Estonia moving up. I always wondered why they weren't better in Ice hockey considering they were a part of Sovjet and being so close to Latvia, Finland and Sweden and considering they aren't very good in other team sports either. Can anyone explain?

 

[chaosof99*]

Congrats to both countries, maybe next year we will see Kopitar playing for Slovenia.
For the promotions into Division I, being Latvian very happy to see Estonia moving up and very surprised Spain was promoted. Will be interesting to see how they do next year, hopefully they keep up the good work.

As for the Austria-Ukraine game, I wasnt able to watch and had to use the IIHF Live ticker and everytime I looked, Ukraine took a penalty. After looking at the scoresheet, they took a total of 76 minutes, 50 alone came in the 3rd.
For anybody who actually watched the match, was Ukraine really that undisciplined or really cheap calls?

They were rather undisciplined. Took bad penalties, elbows and what have you. They got one back though at the end of the 3rd. Austrian boards a ukrainian, he lies on the ice, looks at what the refs are doing and just decides to play dead to get an even bigger penalty called on Austria. He succeeded and Austria got a 5 minute major with about 7 minutes to play.

Anyways, austria killed that off and the ukranian guy even skated afterwards.

 

[joe89]

Cool to see Estonia moving up. I always wondered why they weren't better in Ice hockey considering they were a part of Sovjet and being so close to Latvia, Finland and Sweden and considering they aren't very good in other team sports either. Can anyone explain?

Probably mostly related to their small population compared to the rest coming out of Sovjet.

 

[Purple hippo]

They were rather undisciplined. Took bad penalties, elbows and what have you. They got one back though at the end of the 3rd. Austrian boards a ukrainian, he lies on the ice, looks at what the refs are doing and just decides to play dead to get an even bigger penalty called on Austria. He succeeded and Austria got a 5 minute major with about 7 minutes to play.

Anyways, austria killed that off and the ukranian guy even skated afterwards.

Thank you, from what you say sounds much like Ukraine deserved to stay in Division I and with stuff like faking injuries is just in very poor taste. Maybe Ukraine can come back next year more disciplined and find themselves back at the top.

Thanks again, best of luck to Austria next year in Slovakia.

 

[Elvs]

Probably mostly related to their small population compared to the rest coming out of Sovjet.

Yeah I guess... But if Finland can beat Sweden, than Estonia at least should be able to be a consistant nation in tier #2 compared to Latvia who is consistant in the top tier. So I thought there might be something more to it, anyone know how their system is? good/bad/etc.

 

[smitty10]

Anyone know if Mursak was a big factor for Slovenia? There is a chance that he will be on the Wings next season.

Also, good news for Austria. With as many as 3 NHLers next season as well as Thomas Pock, Andre Lakos and Bernd Bruckner who have played in either the NHL or KHL within the past few seasons. Hopefully they can stick around and knock out one of the weaker teams (Kazakhstan, Italy, France, etc.).

 

[Kamzik]

I am sure the organizers of the World Championships in Bratislava - Kosice are happy to see Austria come up. I think they would have liked to see Hungary promoted too. I suppose one out of two isn't bad. Hopefully common sense will prevail and Austria will be placed in one of the groups that plays in Bratislava. Then the onus will be on fans of Austrian hockey to come out and support their team in Slovakia!

 

[slovakiasnextone]

I am sure the organizers of the World Championships in Bratislava - Kosice are happy to see Austria come up. I think they would have liked to see Hungary promoted too. I suppose one out of two isn't bad. Hopefully common sense will prevail and Austria will be placed in one of the groups that plays in Bratislava. Then the onus will be on fans of Austrian hockey to come out and support their team in Slovakia!

I have some big doubts regarding Hungary, with all respect to their hockey fans, who are really really awesome and loud, there is no doubt in my mind that there would be a lot of idiots on both HUN and SVK side who would have misused the WHC and it would IMO only mean a lot of security trouble for the organizers. It would probably get very nasty. As much us it sucks, but if we want to be realistic....

As for Austria and Bratislava, I don´t think you can really go like that, IMO it would be great as well if the Czechs played in Bratislava as weel as there will be much more of them than the Austrians and it would pretty much guarantee sell-outs for their games, but it can also happen that both teams will play in Slovakia´s group and in that case, the group should definitely be played in Košice as there also are rumours that Košice will get that group. This matter probably won´t entirely be up to the organizers anyway.

Also it´s very close to Slovakia from Slovenia as well, so I don´t see why their fans wouldn´t come as well, as who knows when they´ll be playing elite division again and the place they will play elite division again will most probably be further away than Slovakia is for them.

 

[worstfaceoffmanever]

Anyone know if Mursak was a big factor for Slovenia? There is a chance that he will be on the Wings next season.

Five goals and 7 points in five games.

What really impresses me is that they were led by youth. Urbas, Ticar, Mursak, and Jeglic were their four leading scorers and all are under 23. Ticar is 20. I can't wait to see what they do in Slovakia next year.

 

[Filppula]

Five goals and 7 points in five games.

What really impresses me is that they were led by youth. Urbas, Ticar, Mursak, and Jeglic were their four leading scorers and all are under 23. Ticar is 20. I can't wait to see what they do in Slovakia next year.

Kid is goooood! Oozes potential.

 

[EbencoyE]

Yeah I guess... But if Finland can beat Sweden, than Estonia at least should be able to be a consistant nation in tier #2 compared to Latvia who is consistant in the top tier. So I thought there might be something more to it, anyone know how their system is? good/bad/etc.

Estonia, like Lithuania is a big basketball country I believe. Not much hockey in either.

 

[Booba]

Serbia and Croatia on the other hand went winless and are being relegated to Division II and are being replaced by Estonia and Spain (to the surprise of everybody involved).

I am not surprised to see Estonia promoted
They had at least 3 decent players on their roster

-Forward Andrei Makrov (Yes Makrov!) - Was a PPG player in Austria this year. He also played 21 games in the RSL and spent a lot of years in Russia's lower division.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=11966
-Defenseman Dmitri Suur- Experienced dman. Played a few years in North America (former IHL and UHL) Also played in Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic top leagues.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=34680
-Goaltender Mark Rajevski- Young goaltender. Currently playing in some junior american league
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=47518

This Makrov guy completly dominated the tournament with 28 points (14 goals) in 4 games. Rajevski only let 2 goals in 89 shots. So I guess that this team has potential. They were also missing their best player Toivo Suursoo who played few seasons in the RSL, SEL and a few games in the AHL http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=190

Also, I don't know if anyone can answer that, but I'm a little surprised to see that there aren't a lot of north americans playing in those tournaments. (I mean players with some let's say serbian or croatian ancestry or guys who played a few years in a certain country and got the citizenship). Is it because they are not allowed to play or is it because they don't want to play in those 1st or 2nd division tournament due to the lower quality of play.

I mean with a little help form canadian or american trained israelis, a country like Israel wouldn't have been relegated to Division III.

By the way, if you want info about those tournaments, the wikipedia page is really complete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_IIHF_World_Championship_Division_II

 

[kaiser matias]

I am not surprised to see Estonia promoted
They had at least 3 decent players on their roster

-Forward Andrei Makrov (Yes Makrov!) - Was a PPG player in Austria this year. He also played 21 games in the RSL and spent a lot of years in Russia's lower division.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=11966
-Defenseman Dmitri Suur- Experienced dman. Played a few years in North America (former IHL and UHL) Also played in Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic top leagues.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=34680
-Goaltender Mark Rajevski- Young goaltender. Currently playing in some junior american league
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=47518

This Makrov guy completly dominated the tournament with 28 points (14 goals) in 4 games. Rajevski only let 2 goals in 89 shots. So I guess that this team has potential. They were also missing their best player Toivo Suursoo who played few seasons in the RSL, SEL and a few games in the AHL http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=190

Also, I don't know if anyone can answer that, but I'm a little surprised to see that there aren't a lot of north americans playing in those tournaments. (I mean players with some let's say serbian or croatian ancestry or guys who played a few years in a certain country and got the citizenship). Is it because they are not allowed to play or is it because they don't want to play in those 1st or 2nd division tournament due to the lower quality of play.

I mean with a little help form canadian or american trained israelis, a country like Israel wouldn't have been relegated to Division III.

By the way, if you want info about those tournaments, the wikipedia page is really complete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_IIHF_World_Championship_Division_II

The main reason North Americans don't play for European national teams has to do with the IIHF rules. To be eligible for a national team, a player has to have played for 2 years in that country, as well as be a citizen (if he played for a different national team before, then he has to wait 4 years). Some countries, like Italy and Germany, have several North Americans, and countries like Serbia and Croatia brought in some foreigners this year, with the goal of having them play for their teams in 2011.

However, this ultimately hurts the development of hockey in those countries, as national team spots are taken by guys who have only spent a few years in the country. A good example would be Croatia. They had a team from Zagreb join the Austrian league this year in order to compete in a decent league. Most of their national team players were on this team, in a setup similar to what Hungary is doing (most of their national team plays for the Hungarian team in the Austrian league). However, the top lines of the Croatian team is filled by the imported Canadians, guys who weren't eligible for the World Championships this year, and as a result the Croatians got relegated.

 

[InglewoodJack]

Congrats to both countries, maybe next year we will see Kopitar playing for Slovenia.
For the promotions into Division I, being Latvian very happy to see Estonia moving up and very surprised Spain was promoted. Will be interesting to see how they do next year, hopefully they keep up the good work.

As for the Austria-Ukraine game, I wasnt able to watch and had to use the IIHF Live ticker and everytime I looked, Ukraine took a penalty. After looking at the scoresheet, they took a total of 76 minutes, 50 alone came in the 3rd.
For anybody who actually watched the match, was Ukraine really that undisciplined or really cheap calls?

Spain is D-1 now? I know they're top 30 world wide, but this is pretty neat. Also I think they have a few players in the SEL who are pretty good.

 

[Purple hippo]

Spain is D-1 now? I know they're top 30 world wide, but this is pretty neat. Also I think they have a few players in the SEL who are pretty good.

Yes, Spain has moved up winning their Division IIB tournament in Mexico. They ended up winning the tournament thanks to their 6:0 beating of Australia in the first game.

As for players in SEL, I am not that in-depth with Spanish hockey but the roster they advanced with dosnt look like they have any SEL players.

Their top players from the tournament were two 19-year old kids. Juan Muñoz who lead the whole tournament with 16pts (10+6) and he plays for FC Barcelona. The other 19-year is Alejandro Pedraz who had 12pts (2+10)(4th in points) and he plays in Finland with Kalpa-T U-20.

 

[mattihp]

Yeah I guess... But if Finland can beat Sweden, than Estonia at least should be able to be a consistant nation in tier #2 compared to Latvia who is consistant in the top tier. So I thought there might be something more to it, anyone know how their system is? good/bad/etc.

The mentality against everything russian probably has something to do with it. Hockey might have been associated with Russia and thus being something bad and disgusting for many Estonians. Not surprisingly, more than 40ish% of the top ice hockey players are from the russian-speaking minority.

 

[mattihp]

Spain is D-1 now? I know they're top 30 world wide, but this is pretty neat. Also I think they have a few players in the SEL who are pretty good.

Spain doesn't have a single player in the SEL.

 

[EbencoyE]

Spain doesn't have a single player in the SEL.

I believe one of their younger players played in Canada for a while though before becoming homesick. And I think they have a player or two in Finland.

Wish I had more info, but internationalhockeyforums are down.

 

[mattihp]

I believe one of their younger players played in Canada for a while though before becoming homesick. And I think they have a player or two in Finland.

Wish I had more info, but internationalhockeyforums are down.

They have some younger guys playing at lower levels and at least one in the highest or second highest junior league in Finland; which is pretty alright. But having to play your young ones too early on can really hurt a nations chance to develop.

Alejandro Pedraz plays for one of KalPas jr teams. Juan Muñoz played for the U-17 team there a couple of years ago.