Welcome back to the Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall here in Norway! Here is the recap of the first round of the playoffs for the S75 IIHF Tournament! This exciting day of play saw upsets with both 1 seeds getting eliminated and the elimination of the entire final four from the S74 season!

Canada 7 - Japan 4
This was a fierce battle for 2 periods as they were tied at 4 goals apiece. In the first period, Ricky Koivu kicked off the scoring for Canada before Japan’s Inactive Forever and Canada’s Jack St. Clair scored within a minute of each other in the first. The second period had a flurry of activity with 3 goals in the first 2 minutes. Cale Salad (CAN) forced a turnover early in the second period and scored, but soon after Evil AllBran (JPN) scored twice to tie the game again. Activity Check scored shorthanded to give the Japanese their last goal and only lead of the game. Bruno Tooyo would be the last goal scorer of the second period, tying the game for Canada. Canada would take the lead early in the third with Axel Kirby. Tommi Koivu would get the insurance goal on a power play goal and Paul Koivu would nail a buzzer beater empty net goal. The Japanese had 3 penalties to Canada’s 1 and Canada had 55 shots on goal to Japan’s 34.

Ireland 4 – Germany 1
The gold medalists from last year have fallen as the Irish go marching on. After a scoreless first period, Konstantin Selich gave the Germans their only goal of the game before the Irish quickly responded with Derek Martin burying his first goal of the evening. Erik Bergmark mad ethe game 2-1 in the Irish’s favor. In the Third Period, Kyle Murray scored early to give the Irish a two goal lead and Derek Martin put one in the empty net to cap things off. The Penalties were Germany: 4, Ireland: 3 and the shots were 38-28 in Ireland’s favor. Ireland will play Canada in the next round.

France 4 – Finland 1
The Cinderella run continues for France after qualifying by one point after a shootout win, they have now knocked down the top team from the round robin in Finland. Lazer Gato opened the scoring in the second period after nothing aside from a lot of penalties happened in the first. Antoine Beauregard scored the eventual game winner soon after. Aumy Junior II scored the only Finnish goal soon after Beauregard scored. In the third, Aleksi Kettu bookended the period with a shorthanded goal early and then scored on an empty net at the end. Finland played physical with 7 penalties called on them, but France was unable to convert on any of them while France had a perfect kill record on their 4 penalties. France had 56 shots on goal to Finland’s 34.

Sweden 9 - Norway 0
Sweden really decided to pull a Germany Brazil WC 2014 on the host country. The Swedish goals kept coming and didn’t stop coming, fed Norway to the wolves and left the ice winning, didn’t make sense not to have some fun, when the shots go in and your team is on a run.Adelie de Pengu scored first on a powerplay, followed by Lord Farquaads and M’Baku Oluburi (PPG). The Swedish killed any idea of a comeback with 4 goals in the second period from Dave Heinrich, Robin Nyckel, Matsmith Soderberg-Tremblay and Lias Ekholm-Gunnarson. M’Baku Oluburi became the only double goal scorer of the game before Andren Akerson hammered home the last goal of the night. The powerplays were 3 for Norway and 4 for Sweden, while Sweden had 40 shots on goal to Norway’s 28. Sweden will play France in the next round.

Good luck to all the teams and well played to those eliminated!

WC: 641