Russia's third victory
On Monday, the Russian national team suffered its first defeat at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Latvia.
After two victories in a row over the Czech Republic (4: 3) and Great Britain (7: 1), Valery Bragin's wards unexpectedly lost to Slovakia (1: 3) and allowed the opponent to take the lead in Group A.
Now on Wednesday, the domestic team had to beat Denmark, which in three starting meetings suffered only one failure (Switzerland - 0: 1), but sensationally left Sweden out of work - 4: 3.
And in the reporting confrontation, the wards of Heinz Ehlers again managed to shake the nerves of the favorite, despite the final score of 0: 3.
Moreover, the Russians managed to break through Sebastian Dam only 19 seconds before the end of the second period.
Before that, although they had an advantage, they could not cope with the organized defense of the opponent.
When the defenders made mistakes, the goalkeeper made incredible rescues. So, at the beginning of the match, Dam miraculously managed to fend off Maxim Shalunov's click into the empty near corner (in total, the goalkeeper of the Austrian "Klagenfurt" has 28 saves). And at every opportunity, the Danes organized their own unpleasant counterattacks. As a result, their backlog in throws was not so great (7:10 in the first period and 5: 9 in the second).
But shortly before the second break, one of the youngest hockey players of the national team, Ivan Morozov, scored the most important goal, realizing the majority.
And in the final 20 minutes, Bragin's team finished off the rival.
First, Alexander Barabanov scored the third goal in the tournament and caught up with Anton Burdasov in the team race of the scorers.
The assets of both have three effective throws.
Then Dmitry Voronkov shot the target right after the throw-in won by Morozov.
It is also necessary to note Alexander Samonov.
The goalkeeper, whom many fans did not see as the first number of the national team before the start of the world championship, reflected all 18 shots and issued a shutout.
Thus, Russia won a third victory in the World Cup and overtook Slovakia in the standings.
The main competitor on Thursday will face off against strong Switzerland.
Miracle from Great Britain
In turn, the national team of Belarus on Wednesday had an excellent opportunity to rise to the third line of the octet.
On Monday, the neighbors imposed a fight on the Czech Republic and lost only in overtime (2: 3), but left the playoff zone.
In the match with the main outsider of the group, Great Britain, the charges of Mikhail Zakharov, it seemed, should have confidently gained three points.
However, the match from the very beginning did not develop according to the favorite's scenario.
On the one hand, the Belarusians, as expected, had an advantage.
On the other hand, they did not set unsolvable problems for the opponent.
Ben Bones, although he regularly entered the game, did not perform miracles at the last frontier.
And in the 14th minute, the team conceded altogether.
Liam Kirk, drafted in the NHL, who had grieved Russia and Slovakia earlier at the current world championship, forced Danny Taylor to surrender with a throw from the middle distance to the far nine.
In the second period, the Belarusians seemed to have found their game. They increased the pressure on the opponent's goal and, in the end, leveled the score, realizing the majority for the removal of Matthew Myers. But the team failed to develop the advantage. Moreover, shortly before the break, she managed to miss twice in just over a minute. At first, Zakharov's wards did not keep track of Ben Davis on a nickle, and then Kirk, who made a double.
In the final 20 minutes, Mike Hammond increased the British advantage to three goals, and the position of the Belarusians became critical.
Only after that did they finally get turned on and almost made a comeback.
At first, the rivals themselves made a mistake and presented the puck to Jeff Platt, and then Shane Prince reduced the lag of the team to a minimum.
In the end, the neighbors removed the goalkeeper, but could not escape.
Thus, the UK national team not only won the first victory in the tournament, but also caught up with the opponent in the standings, gaining four points.
Germany's first defeat
In the central match of the game day of Group B, Germany and Kazakhstan met.
Yuri Mikhailis' charges became one of the main sensations of the tournament.
The team, which played in the First Division at the last World Cup, at the start of the tournament won two victories in a row (over Latvia and Finland in the shootout) and only then conceded three unanswered goals from the United States.
In turn, the Germans scored nine points out of nine possible in three matches, upsetting Italy, Norway and Canada 17 times in total.
However, on Wednesday their successful streak was interrupted.
In the first period, the Bundestim, although it had an advantage, did not manage to score.
The only thing I remember was Nikita Boyarkin's hitting the goal post.
And right after the break, the opponent opened the scoring at all thanks to the accurate throw of Alexander Shin.
Only after that did the Germans wake up and instantly turned the tide of the match.
In less than five minutes, they managed to upset Boyarkin twice.
Abandoned goals were scored by Tom Künhackl and Markus Eisenschmid.
And the goal of Matthias Plakhta was canceled by the judges due to an offside position.
However, the Kazakhs did not think to give up and at the very beginning of the final period equalized the score.
Pavel Akolzin was shot down in a foreign zone, and Roman Starchenko confidently realized the bullet, sending a shell between the shields to Matthias Niederberger.
And four minutes before the final siren, the neighbors took the lead.
Alexey Maklyukov brought Akolzin to a rendezvous with the goalkeeper with an ideal pass, and he did not miss his chance.
After that, the Germans removed the goalkeeper and spent a time-out, but they could not distinguish themselves at least once and transfer the game into overtime.
The national team of Kazakhstan won the third victory in the tournament and the first in regulation time.
In the group B standings, she managed to catch up with Finland and Latvia with seven points.
Germany retained the lead with nine.
Thriller from Canada
The fans were equally interested in the meeting between Canada and Norway.
First of all, everyone was worried whether the Maple Leaves would finally be able to interrupt the unsuccessful streak and score debut points at the tournament.
In the first three matches, they suffered three defeats in regulation time (Latvia - 0: 2, USA - 1: 5, Germany - 1: 3) and scored only two goals.
But in the confrontation with the modest Norwegians, the North Americans were still considered favorites and had to win.
Gerard Galland's wards really went out on the ice with great desire and did not delay with a goal.
No sooner had the game started than Connor Brown opened the other's goal.
It was only the 22nd second.
And in the middle of the first period, Adam Henrik converted the majority and doubled the lead of the Canadians in the long run.
After such an unsuccessful start, it was just right to expect a defeat from the Canadians, but they again decided to tickle their fans' nerves.
In the middle of the match, Maple Leaves managed to concede twice in one minute and 20 seconds and instantly lost all their advantage.
In the Scandinavians, Thomas Valkve Olsen and Mats Rosselli Olsen distinguished themselves.
But at the end of the period, the favorite managed to pull himself together, and Andrew Manjapane again brought the team forward.
Such a development of events promised an interesting final 20 minutes, but in this segment the audience witnessed only one goal. Henrik scored in the minority and scored a double. And Canada won the first victory in the tournament and is now trying to perform a miracle and get into the playoffs.