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GDT: Playoff round - February 20 - Slovenia vs Norway

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stv11

Registered User
Jul 29, 2004
3,287
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Switzerland
2018 Olympic Tournament
Playoff Round

February 20
2:40 AM ET • 8:40 AM CET

slovenia_64.png
norway_64.png


Slovenia
Confirmed lineup

Goaltenders:
32 Gašper Krošelj
40 Luka Gracnar

Defensemen:
15 Blaž Gregorc - 51 Mitja Robar "A"
14 Matic Podlipnik - 86 Sabahudin Kovacevic
23 Luka Vidmar - 28 Aleš Kranjc
61 Jurij Repe

Forwards:
26 Jan Urbas - 39 Jan Muršak "C" - 91 Miha Verlic
92 Anže Kuralt - 24 Rok Ticar "A" - 55 Robert Sabolic
12 David Rodman - 22 Marcel Rodman - 71 Boštjan Golicic
18 Ken Ograjenšek - 16 Aleš Mušic - 19 Žiga Pance
84 Andrej Hebar

Scratched:
G 69 Matija Pintaric
D 17 Žiga Pavlin
F 8 Žiga Jeglic


Norway
Confirmed lineup

Goaltenders:
30 Lars Haugen
33 Henrik Haukeland

Defensemen:
6 Jonas Holøs - 10 Mattias Nørstebø
47 Aleksander Bonsaksen - 90 Daniel Sørvik
17 Stefan Espeland - 42 Henrik Ødegaard
4 Johannes Johannesen

Forwards:
41 Patrick Thoresen - 40 Mathis Olimb - 46 Ken André Olimb
61 Aleksander Reichenberg - 20 Anders Bastiansen - 51 Mats Rosseli Olsen
21 Steffen Thoresen - 26 Kristian Forsberg - 27 Ludvig Hoff
15 Tomm Kristiansen - 28 Niklas Roest - 22 Martin Røymark
8 Mathias Trettenes

Scratched:
G 38 Henrik Holm
D 5 Erlend Lesund
F 16 Eirik Salsten


​
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I consider Slovenia the favorites here. Maybe I'm too familiar with the Slovenian line-up by now, but these are, to me, solid hockey players, whereas I'm unfamiliar with most of the Norwegian squad.
 
Norway actually defeated Slovenia 5 -1 in the last world championship. Anyone remembering that game? I must admit I don't ...

Also, the only Norwegian lost due to NHL (or AHL in this case) from that game is third-liner (edit, perhaps second-liner, he had 13:21 on the ice, sixths mostly used forward there) Andreas Martinsen. Any other changes are "by choice". Has Slovenia lost more players than that due to NHL?

I know Slovenia has been good, but this is surprising. It is just like Norway has a chance to win? Would be Norways first win in the Olympics since 1994(!), where Norway won a placement-game against Austria. I was actually at the Olympics in 94 and saw Norway lose to Austria back then, in the main-group thingy a day or two before, I assume Austria didn't care about the placement-game. Cause they were totally winning in the game I witnessed. OK, that was off-topic :ha:
 
Yeah, it might be that Norway are actually favorites here. It's just that individual name recognition is much higher for me on the Slovenia team than on the Norway team. Everyone knows (P.) Thoresen, but not many others. In contrast, I'm pretty familiar with the top 9 Slovenian forwards, for example, they're pretty much household names by now, though not in a good way for Slovak fans. Slovenia has already inflicted so many painful defeats on Slovakia, both in hockey and football, they're pretty much a nightmare for us (the "new Czechs"?). To add insult to injury, the 2 players who successfully converted their shootout attempts to defeat Slovakia on Saturday, played for Slovakia's KHL team for a number of seasons.
 
Faterson said:
Yeah, it might be that Norway are actually favorites here. It's just that individual name recognition is much higher for me on the Slovenia team than on the Norway team. Everyone knows (P.) Thoresen, but not many others. In contrast, I'm pretty familiar with the top 9 Slovenian forwards, for example, they're pretty much household names by now, though not in a good way for Slovak fans. Slovenia has already inflicted so many painful defeats on Slovakia, both in hockey and football, they're pretty much a nightmare for us (the "new Czechs"?). To add insult to injury, the 2 players who successfully converted their shootout attempts to defeat Slovakia on Saturday, played for Slovakia's KHL team for a number of seasons.
Click to expand...

Espen "Shampo" Knutsen talks about Jan Mursak though. He wasn't on the roster for Slovenia in that game last year.

Shampo: Norge må stoppe denne mannen

(in Norwegian, there is translation-programs out there unless you can read it as it is. He believes Mursak is one of the best, or maybe the best, player in SHL right now.)
 
He was certainly dangerous and I got nervous every time he touched the puck. Slovakia is currently lacking an outstanding individual player like Muršak, which was one of the reasons for its defeat.
 
I would have said Norway wins before the tournament started but based on recent performances of SLO and NOR, no idea who wins this. Maybe that group of SLO, SVK, USA, RUS was weak? RUS had one bad game but now I see them as the most dangerous team in the tournament.

So this game might give some idea which group was better.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a close game. Slovenija has been playing well and through that I'd give them edge but you never know at these levels.
 
norway somehow doesn't fit our style of play and slovenian players openly admit it. norway should be a slight favorite here, regardless of the group results, or past wc results. and mursak looked really tired after the last game, he didn't play much this season and considered an added value he's obviously not 100% fit for the intensity of such tourney. on the other hand, slovenians got this renewed combo of fanatic motivation and almost zen calm under the new coach savolainen, so it should be tight. 55-45% for norway imho.
 
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He have used some unauthorized asthma medication, a bad blow for Slovenia. The guy have played for SSK, in Sweden, so he is familiar to me.
 
Ah, too bad. Possibly the best shootout specialist in Europe. At least Slovenia has just scored on the power-play.
 
Holy moly that speed from Mursak!! What a scoring chance, not sure how the puck stayed out.
 
Lol Finnish channel TV5 is showing replay of Finland-Germany instead of this, pathetic coverage of this tournament.
 
Yeesh. Ferraro tearing Norway to shreds on the CBC feed.

Claims that they need to do what Slovakia is doing and start changing their hockey culture to focus more on youth and offense rather than defense and veteran leadership.
 
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