WC: - Division 1A 2025., Sfantu Gheorghe 27.04 - 3.05. | Page 4 | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
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WC: Division 1A 2025., Sfantu Gheorghe 27.04 - 3.05.

SoundAndFury said:
I think Brits in general thought they can just breeze through it, judging from absolutely every piece of evidence surrounding their team. Reminds me of GB during their D1B days.

Expecting hungover Kirk to transform them into a different team in a couple of days also seems like a tall task.
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Well as I said before the tournament, promotion isn't going to be a gimme here, our roster is weaker than it was 2 years ago, and our division opponents are on the whole stronger.

Ofc there's limits on the difference one player can make in hockey, but if we think about the contributions Nathanael Halbert's made already in both games, without him there's a pretty good chance we'd be sitting on 0 points rather than 4 so far. An in-form Kirk could be the difference between winning and losing any of the remaining 3 games.
 
Because I am history and trivia fan... "Romanian" defenceman Konsta Mesikämmen is a third generation Finnish Liiga player. His grandfather Ilkka Mesikämmen is in Finnish Hockey Hall Of Fame (handful of championship representations and you are in basically).

In 1966 Ilkka was part of team that rather embarasingly lost to Romania 7-3 in exhibition game. Geza Szabo scored hattrick and his twin brother Iuliu scored twice. Two days later in unofficial exhibition game Finland won 8-1.
 
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Watching Japan-GB, and so far things don't really look much better than earlier in the week.

GB started the period out the blocks like a rocket and created arguably the best two chances of the period so far, but the suspect defensive moments have built up and allowed Japan to grow into the game, and while GB still carry a threat it's Japan who look on top at the moment.
 
GB takes the lead after being thoroughly outplayed in the 1st period. These Asian teams, both Korea and Japan, should really get some finish to score on the teams with an actual goaltender in the net.

So it's really much the same story for GB. The play that is a concern and the score that isn't.
 
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Yeah beautiful pass from Kirk on the goal to take the lead, a few of our top-line forwards, in particular Ben Lake I think have been disappointing, but Dowd's been playing well and deserves the goal.

Scoreline does indeed look good for now, but asking your goalie to make 40ish saves a game isn't exactly a recipe for shutouts.

Also not the commentator on the English feed is quite disparaging about the quality of the ice in Romania, cynical side of me reckons that may be an excuse for the slips and giveaways by GB, but does seem like the puck's been bobbling about a fair bit too.
 
Kirk the difference-maker, nice control by Perlini down the middle to set up the newly crowned German champion to slot it 5-hole, 2-0!
 
It is 20 degrees in Romania and on a sunny spring day, it takes a robust, purpose-built arena to keep the ice in good condition under heavy use. This is, from what I understand, a multi-purpose arena used primarily for basketball so surely the ice cannot be very good. It is the same for both teams though, so hard to see how it would be especially detrimental to GB.

The game, meanwhile, is similar story to Poland - Japan. Good effort by the Japanese but they can't score while the opponents do it with relative ease. GB first line has certainly been looking very good today.
 
Strange period, I actually think GB were much improved from the first 20 minutes but they're going to lose it 3-1, did get a bit rattled after that silly goalmouth scramble were Ben Davies near enough shunted the puck into his own net, but several decent chances to score a third goal were missed.
 
GB dominate the early stretches of period 3 and a speculative shot from Josh Batch finds the net to tie it up, anyone's guess how this game will finish but a 3rd successive overtime for GB would feel pretty appropriate.
 
I understand that Japan is saving Otsuka for tomorrow's game against Romania and it's sensible to do so but I still wonder how this game would look with him in goal. Goals 2 and 3 certainly weren't the greatest from Narisawa.
 
This is the best game I have seen Takagi play in his life. I even checked his stats, this might be the best game of his life.
 
Ishida misses a wide open net and naturally it goes the other way.... Score on an empty net kids.
 
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Penalty is overturned but not too hard to lipread Russell there, think we got a bit lucky in the end not to be pinged for the interchange in the end.

4-4 in regulation and that feels about fair.
 
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Maybe slightly lucky from GB to keep winning by the skin of their teeth but can't complain too much if you are Japan. Also just reiterates my point about how this game would have looked from the Japanese perspective with a better goalie.

Also, like I said, if you are a relegation contender one point is, evidently, a bare minimum to take from GB :laugh:
 
Dowd with the GWG on a 2-man breakaway as GB pick Japan off on the blue-line, not a bad way to crown his 100th cap!

Kirk gets the game MVP for his 1+2...

Defeat here would have been pretty disastrous but promotion hopes are kept alive with 2 more points, I think the gap between Halbert and the rest of our defencemen is pretty cavernous right now, and mistakes from O'Connor and even the usually dependable Richardson are part of what are keeping our opponents in games.

It'll be Italy tomorrow morning and to be honest I'm not feeling very confident at all that we can rise to the challenge from what I've seen so far.
 
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The spread of realistic is possibilities is so wide, this ended up being quite an exciting tournament. These dropped point by GB can make all the difference or can make no difference depending on how the other games go.

One thing I will say, I think GB does need a small miracle tomorrow, considering the way they have been playing.
 
Well, for those familiar with the teams coached by Jalonen and the teams coached by Kalaber this game is going exactly as expected. Hopefully somebody scores relatively soon to rock this boat.

Oh, here we are, Poland right on q.
 
Is anyone watching this? Wasn't the Italian forward offside by like 1,5 meters? I only glanced from afar but that's how it seemed to me?
 
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