The revival of Sweden, Boyarkin's 49 saves and Jensen's leadership in the scorers' race: what was the fifth day of the World Ice Hockey Championship remembered for

British first point

Denmark and Great Britain played the first match of the day in Group A.

Two years ago, their meeting ended in a crushing victory for the Scandinavians with a score of 9: 0.

This time they were not so fierce and were able to win only in overtime, which allowed the British to score their first point in the tournament, which neither Canada nor Sweden had achieved at that time.

Olympic champions in 1936 began to amaze in the first minutes of the game, when 32-year-old defender Ben O'Connor opened the scoring.

Thanks to this goal, the British national team for the first time since 1951 was able to score the puck in three World Cup matches in a row.

And for the first time in 59 years, she managed to lead the story in the main time of the game.

This lasted no more than eight minutes, until Niklas Jensen created the moment for Julian Jacobsen. Soon the Danes took advantage of the first removal from the opponent, and this time the leader of the Danish national team distinguished himself. He scored the fourth goal in the tournament, which no other hockey player has yet achieved.

In the second and third periods, the Danes were not as active at the opponent's goal as in the first - there were only 11 shots on their side, and none of them reached the goal.

The British continued to hope for the best until, in the 57th minute, Mike Hammond, who played in Denmark this season, equalized after the puck with Canadian-born Ben Lake.

The match went into overtime, and in it the Danes still brought matters to victory.

The last goal was scored by Markus Lauridsen, who was assisted by the same Jensen - he took part in all the goals of the Danish national team in Latvia and is in the lead in the scoring race of the tournament.

Sweden's devastating return

Sweden was soon able to overtake Great Britain in the standings.

Tre Krunur scored their first victory in the tournament over the Swiss team, defeating them with a score of 7: 0.

Prior to this, the Scandinavians suffered two defeats in regulation time.

Before the third meeting at the tournament, all the news around Sweden was only negative.

Striker Karl Klingberg, who scored two out of three goals for the Scandinavians, was injured and was forced to leave his compatriots.

It was not possible to count on a replacement from overseas - the Washington Capitals strikers Niklas Beckström and Karl Hagelin refused to go to Latvia at the last moment.

As a result, Klingberg had to be replaced by Jesper Froeden, who plays in the Swedish championship.

But such a situation, when the team could not be worse off, finally cheered her up.

In the meeting with Switzerland, the Swedes were able to squeeze the most out of their rare moments and win the first period with a score of 2: 0.

The same Froden and Adrian Kempe distinguished themselves, the first among the Swedish NHL players to throw the puck.

Kempe's initiative was supported by Victor Olofsson in the second period, after which Froden again sent Swiss goalkeeper Leonardo Genoni to inspect the match from the bench with his double.

In the last 20 minutes, the Swedes were no longer limited to two goals and scored three goals at once.

This led to the most difficult defeat for Switzerland in the last 26 years - in 1995 they were defeated by the Russian national team with a score of 0: 8.

End of scoring streak in Kazakhstan

The winning streak of Kazakhstan was interrupted in the match with the United States.

The American team won with a 3-0 win and moved up to the group B playoff zone, displacing from there just the only Asian team in the World Cup.

The first period of the match was a real nightmare for the goalkeeper of Kazakhstanis Nikita Boyarkin.

US hockey players made 25 shots on his goal - no team in this tournament has yet attacked with such intensity.

But the Saryarka goalkeeper practically coped with the challenge offered to him and missed only once after the throw of Adam Clendening, who was assisted by Jason Robertson - the Calder Trophy contender has already scored four points in three matches.

The next two periods were almost the same.

The Americans already in the second minute threw a new puck to Boyarkin, after that he reflected a whole hail of new shots, and the teammates did not have time to raise their heads to at least something to answer.

As a result, Kazakhstan was defeated with a score of 0: 3 and interrupted its 17-match goal streak in the elite division of the World Championship - the last time its hockey players left the ice without an abandoned puck back in 2012 in a match with Canada.

Boyarkin finished the match with 49 saves, which were never useful to his team.

Finland team victory

In the second match of Group B, the Finnish national team defeated Norway with a score of 5: 2.

She won the second victory in the tournament, which made it possible to catch up on points with Latvia and rise to third place in three rounds.

The reigning world champions had to recoup from the very beginning - after a minute and a half after the throw-in, the main veteran of Norwegian hockey Mathis Olimb scored his second goal in the tournament.

Until the end of the period, Iiro Pakarinen did the same, scoring only one of his team's five shots in all 20 minutes.

After that, the Finns began to play more actively and quickly converted their advantage on the ice into goals.

But with the score 3: 1 in their favor, the Norwegians again disturbed Juho Olkinuora and got a chance to turn the game in their favor.

But soon after the only removal for the entire match, the Finns regained the advantage of two goals, and then set the final score.

It is interesting that for the whole match none of the Suomi players scored more than one point - in such productive meetings, this can be found extremely rarely.