S59 IIHF Day 7 Recap
(688 words, ready for grading)

Wow! What a start to the quarterfinals! There was a lot of exciting action packed into the four games that we had tonight - goals, not goals, hits and games that went back and forth between each team.

Without further ado:

GER 3 - NOR 10




This game had an extreme abundance of goals - that is no understatement. Andreas Kvalheim started the festivities off with a nice wrist shot, followed by Samuel Michaud 23 seconds later. Goku Muerto ended the first period with a goal off a set play by Slava Petrov and Bork Lazer. The second period also started with goals from Team Norway - this time by Vladimir Petrov, followed by another Vladimir Petrov goal ten minutes later. Cassius Darrow finally put Team Germany on the board late in the second, and Team Germany would go on to score the first goal in the third period as well. However, Team Norway really poured on the coals and would score five goals in the third period to add to their previous five goals, for a 10-goal total. Vladimir Petrov would finish his hat trick late in the third, and Andreas Kvalheim and Eko van Otter heaped insult upon injury. With this lopsided win Team Norway would advance to the semifinals.

JPN 2 - SWE 1 (1OT)




In stark contrast to the previous game, this one had very few goals. Olli Saarinen Jr. and A Jobin were incredible in net, turning away chances like they were unpaid credit card bills. Team Japan’s Dwayne Gretzky would score the opening goal off a tic-tac-toe play from Disisde Dayudie and Akira Ren. Team Sweden finally managed to equalize late in the third period, as Karl Krashwagen was sprung by Ola Wagstrom and managed to finally put one past Saarinen Jr. Both teams went into overtime quite cautiously, fearful of giving up the winning goal. The end would come for Team Sweden as Ryu Jones had a seeing-eye shot that eluded everybody from the blueline, and beat a screened Jobin up high. Both teams fought hard and this was a defensive game to behold.

CZE 5 - USA 2




Knox Booth would go on to earn the third star for this game as he turned away 40 out of 42 shots from Team USA, backstopping Team Czechia to a 5-2 win over Team USA. Both teams would trade goals in the first and second period, but Piotr Czerkawski would add the game-winning goal as he tipped the puck past Strom Chamberlain, assisted by David Kastrba and David Vent. Team Czechia took advantage of the increasing desperation of Team USA and scored two empty net goals as Strom Chamberlain was pulled late in the third for the extra attacker. Both Conor Tanner and Conner Hutton had great games as they drove offense for Team Czechia, and Michael Scarn had a team-high 7 shots on goal. Michael Fox was outstanding for Team USA as it seemed like the puck was always on his stick whenever he was on the ice, and Bobby Sharp and Bobby Lane had several great offensive chances turned away by Knox Booth.

RUS 3 - SWI 6




Elijah Jones would lead Team Switzerland to a resounding victory over Team Russia, which gave Switzerland fits in the early going. A reset between periods in the locker room seemed to help Team Switzerland, which rallied back to score five unanswered goals, started by an Elijah Jones unassisted effort in which he went coast to coast before wristing the puck past Samat Beibitzhanov. Jakub Bruchevski had two goals for Team Russia and drove their offence, as he continues to impress. Justin Keahi had a tripping penalty and was also given a misconduct, as he argued with officials on his way to the penalty box.Alex Petrenko and Valentin Kalashnikov showed great defensive prowess for Team Russia, and look to be defenders of the future for the rising young team.

We will be back on Friday with the semi finals, where Team Czechia will face Team Switzerland, and Team Norway gets to square off against Team Japan!



Thanks for reading!