International Hockey.net − IHWC 2009 - Day 5: France Advance to the Qualification Round

With a surprising 2-1 win over Germany, France advanced the the Qualification Round at the expense of Germany. On the fifth day of the 2009 IIHF World Championship, other upsets were also in the making. Switzerland dominated the World Champions of Russia but lost 2-4. And Hungary raised the occassion vs Belarus and were close to pull off an even bigger upset.

Hungary - Belarus 1-3 (0-1, 1-0, 0-2)
28 April 2009, Arena Zürich-Kloten, Att: 4,710
0-1 03:18 Aleksei Kalyuzhny 1 (Antonenko, Salei) PP1
1-1 25:14 Imre Peterdi 2 (Ladányi, M. Vas)
1-2 54:25 Anton Ugarov 1 (Kalyuzhny, Grabovski)
1-3 59:19 Mikhail Grabovski 2 (Kalyuzhny, Salei) EN
HUN 5x2, BLR 1x2, SOG 23:42 (9:13, 7:19, 7:10)
Best players: HUN: Balasz Ladányi, BLR: Konstantin Koltsov

HUN: Levente Szuper; Bence Svasznek (2), Tamás Sille, János Vas, Krisztin Palkovics (2), Dániel Fekete - András Horvath (2), Viktor Tokaji, Balázs Ladányi, Márton Vas, Imre Peterdi - Viktor Szélig (4), Omar Ennaffati, Csaba Kovács, Csaba Jánosi, Artyom Vaszjunyin - Ratislav Ondrejcik, Balázs Kangyal, Gergely Majoross, Roger Holeczy.
BLR (2): Andrei Mezin, Aleksandr Ryadinski, Ruslan Salei, Andrei Mikhailov, Konstantin Koltsov, Yaroslav Chupris - Vladimir Denisov, Andrei Bashko, Aleksei Ugarov, Aleksei Kalyuzhny, Mikhail Grabovski - Ivan Unsenko, Viktor Kostiuchenok, Oleg Antonenko, Andrei Stas, Sergei Demagin - Andrei Antonov, Aleksandr Kulakov, Evgeni Kovyrshin.
Refs. Ole Hansen (NOR) & Danny Kurmann (SUI)
Linesmen: Eric Bouguin (FRA) / Anton Semionov (EST)

Hungary needed a straight win over Belarus in order to avoid ending up in the relegation group. Given the heavy beating Hungary received by Canada two days ago (0-9), few expected that the Magyars could pull it off. But they nearly succeded. Belarus took an early lead after 3 min on a powerplay goal by Aleksei Kalyuzny. Towards the end of the 1st period and into the 2nd, Hungary started to control the game and they were rewarded at 25:14 when Imre Peterdi scored his second goal in the tournament on a pass from Balasz Ladanyi, Hungary's best player in the game. Hungary came out in the third and dominated the first ten minutes of the period. They peppered Mezin with shots from close range. Ladanyi had a dead on scoring opportunity that Mezin saved and two minutes later Janos Vas fired a snapshot that Mezin knocked away. In the 55' minute, however, Belarus got the break they were looking for.

Late in the period, Belarus got the break they were looking for. Off a faceoff deep in the Belarus zone, Kaliuzhny got control of the puck and saucered a cross ice pass to Ugarov who was breaking through the neutral zone. Once he got control of the puck, Ugarov was in on a break and sent a backhand past Szuper into the net. A few minutes later, Grabovski added an empty net goal.
Source: IIHF

Canada - Slovakia 7-3 (3-0, 3-1, 1-2)
28 April 2009, Arena Zürich-Kloten, Att: 6,300
1-0 04:50 Derek Roy 2 (St. Louis, Weber) PP1
2-0 06:54 Shane Doan 1 (St. Louis, Heatley) PP2
3-0 16:51 Jason Spezza 3 (Weber, Heatley)
3-1 26:05 Tomas Surovy 1 (Olvecky)
4-1 29:39 Ian White 1 (Stamkos, St. Louis)
5-1 33:41 Shea Weber 3(St. Louis) PP2
6-1 35:04 Steve Stamkos 3 (Lombardi, Weber) PP1
7-1 42:04 Jason Spezza 4 (Lombardi)
7-2 55:40 Marcel Hossa 3 (Mikus, Ruzicka) PP1
7-3 58:48 Dominik Granak 1 (Nagy,Radivojevic) PP1
CAN 12x2, SVK 10x2, SOG 24:37 (13:8, 6:13, 5:16)
Goaltender split: Halak (12/17 - 33:41), Lasak (5/7 - 26:19)
Best Players: CAN: Shea Weber, SVK: Jaroslav Obsut

CAN: Dwayne Roloson, Dan Hamhuis, Shea Weber (6), Derek Roy, Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley (2) - Drew Doughty, Chris Phillips (2), Shane Doan (4), Steve Stamkos, Martin St. Louis (2) - Luke Schenn, Ian White, Steve Lombardi, Mike Fisher (4), Shawn Horcoff (2) - Joel Kwiatkowski (2), Colby Armstrong, James Neal.
SVK: Jaroslav Halak (33:41 Jan Lasak); Jaroslav Obsut, Andrej Sekera, Milan Bartovic, Michal Handzus (2), Lubos Bartecko (2) - Peter Smrek, Ivan Baranka, Juraj Stefan Ruzicka, Juraj Stefanka (2), Marcel Hossa (4) - Dominik Granak, Boris Valabik (6), Ladislav Nagy, Ratislav Pavlikovsky, Branko Radivojevic (4) - Rene Vydareny, Jiri Bicek, Peter Olvecky, Tomas Surovy, Juraj Mikus.
Refs: Thomas Sterns (USA) & Marcus Vinnerborg (SWE)
Linesmen: Petr Blumel (CZE) / Tobias Wehrli (SUI)

.Team Canada continued their streak of convincing wins with an easy win over Slovakia. While the play was quite even 5 on 5 Slovakia was forced to take many penalties on a Canadian team that was deadly on the powerplay. Slovakia had their chance to get into the game in the second period after their first goal but Shea Weber's fierce shot effectively ended the game. Canada extended the lead to 7-1 before relaxing a little. Slovakia managed to score a couple of nice powerplay goals at the very end of the game.

Russia - Switzerland 4-2 (1-2, 1-0, 2-0)
28 April 2009, Postfinance Arena, Berne, Att: 11,479
1-0 02:19 Vitaly Atyushov 1 (Kovalchuk, Grebeshkov)
1-1 09:46 Ryan Gardner 1 (Rühtemann, Blindebacher) PP1
1-2 17:17 Martin Plüss 2 (Streit, Rühtemann) PP1
2-2 29:08 Ilya Kovalchuk 3 (Zinoviev)
3-2 48:28 Aleksei Morozov (Kovalchuk)
4-2 59:45 Aleksandr Perezhogin 2 EN
RUS 6x2, SUI 5x2, SOG 24:39 (4:13, 11:7, 9:19)
Best players: RUS: Aleksei Morozov, SUI: Martin Plüss

RUS: Ilya Bryzgalov,, Ilya Nikulin, Vitali Proshkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Aleksei Tereschenko, Aleksei Morozov - Vitaly Vishnevsky (2), Oleg Tverdovsky (2), Aleksandr Frolov (2), Sergei Zinoviev, Aleksandr Perezhogin - Dmitri Kalinin, Vitali Atyushov, Oleg Saprykin, Konstantin Gorovikov (2), Aleksandr Radulov (2) - Denish Grebeshkov, Anton Kuryanov.
SUI: Martin Gerber; Severin Blindenbacher (2), Mark Streit (2), Andreas Ambühl (2), Thierry Paterlini, Thomas Ziegler (2) - Mathias Seger, Phillipe Furrer, Martin Plüss, Ivo Rühtemann, Ryan Gardner - Felicien du Bois (2), Goran Bezina, Thomas Deruns, Sandy Jeannin, Romano Lemm - Roman Josi, Roman Wick, Raffaele Sannitz, Julien Sprunger, Kevin Romy.
Refs: Vladimir Sindler (SUI) / Derek Zalaski (CAN)
Linesmen: Miroslav Valach (SVK) / Chris de Hann (CAN)

In the match against the hosts, the reigning champions struggled, but came out with a 4-2 victory, despite ending the first period down by one goal. Russia scored the game’s first goal after only two minutes of play with a great one timer by Vitaly Atyushov after a nice feed by Ilya Kovalchuk, but Martin Gerber looked a tad slow in the slide. Switzerland reacted very well, taking advantage of the home crowd and the penalties on the Russian side and tied it up at the 9’46” with Canadian-born Ryan Gardner on a powerplay, with the Russian defense not able to clear the zone. The home team pushed the gas and after a few chances (and a few good saves by Bryzvalov) managed to score the un-awaited go-ahead goal with Martin Pluss, incredibly unchallenged on the left during yet another powerplay stretch.

In the second period Bykov’s team played more disciplined, tying the game at the ninth minute, when Zinoviev outskated ZSC’s Seger for a loose puck and served Kovalchuk all alone in front of Gerber.

In the third period, Switzerland staged another siege on a Russian team that had to rely on occasional counterattacks--not exactly what one had imagined before the final frame started. Switzerland fought hard and well, but the Russians proved to be mastering their adopted tactics of counterattacks as well. In the 48" min. Russis secured what was to be the game winning goal. Swiss defenseman, Goran Bezina lost the puck in the Russian midzone, and Morozov and Kovalchuk made an ligthening fast rush towards the Swiss zone. When reaching the slot, Morozov passed the puck to Kovalchuk, but instead of finishing it off, Kovalchuk outsmarted Gerber by returning the puck to Morozov who could easily score in the empty net. One of the coolest goals in the tournament so far. The Swiss’s tried hard to tie the game, putting on a good pressure over Bryzgalov, but the Phoenix goalie reflected everything the opponents threw at his crease and Perezhogin closed the match with an empty netter with just fifteen seconds to go.

France - Germany 2-1 (2-1, 0-0, 0-0)
28 April 2009, Postfinance Arena, Berne, Att: 9,956
1-0 03:50 Anthoine Lussier 1
1-1 04:22 Jochen Hecht 1 (Bakos)
2-1 16:48 Luc Tardif 2 (Meunier)
FRA 10x2 + 1x10, GER 3x2, SOG 26:31 (12:16, 8:9, 6:6)
Best players: FRA: Laurent Meunier, GER: Alexander Barta

FRA (2): Fabrice Lhenry; Vincent Bache, Baptiste Amar; Yorick Treille (2), Laurent Meunier (12), Damien Raux - Mathieu Mille, Antonin Manavian, Francois Rozenthal (2), Anthoine Lussier (2), Laurent Gras - Benoit Quessandier (4), Thomas Roussel, Pierre Edouard Bellemare, Kevin Hecquefeuille (4), Damien Fleury - Kevin Igier, Jonathan Zwikel (2), Stephane da Costa, Luc Tardif, Sascha Treille.
GER: Dimitri Pätzold; Christopher Schmidt, Michael Bakos, Michael Wolf, Michael Hackert (2), Philip Gogulla (2) - Sven Butenschoen, Christoph Schubert, Yannic Seidenberg, Christoph Ullmann (2), Patrick Hager - Sebastian Osterloh, Moritz Müller, Travis Mulock, Jochen Hecht, Alexander Barta - Andreas Renz, Frank Hördler, Sven Felski, Kai Hospelt, Daniel Kreutzer.
Refs: Vladimir Baluska (SVK) & Brent Reiber (SUI)
Linesmen: Christian Kaspar (AUT) / Andrii Kicha (UKR)

France took a surprising and extremely important win over the dispirited Germany. France scored their first goal after the German defense created a string of errors. Germany however scored a pretty powerplay goal. But German troubles at the defensive continued and after an extremely sloppy plays Luc Tardif scored the eventual game winning goal. After this France had few scoring chances and while Germany had many powerplay opportunities they couldn't convert. This means that France continues to the qualifying round while Germany will face the relegation round. Though Germany cannot relegate due to their hosting the IHWC next year this was a very disappointing end for the team that was aiming the quarterfinals.