With a win against Kazakhstan Hungary would still hold on a slight chance of winning promotion a loss would not only eliminate Hungary but would give Kazakhstan the title.
Coach Rich Chernomaz continued on rotating his goalies with Dániel Kornakker getting the start between the pipes, missing the game along with Kristóf Schmál who is out with illness was Márk Egyed who is finished with an injury.
The game started out relatively defensively with both teams not wanting to give up an early goal. Penalty problems from the Ukraine game carried on into this game as they had a number of player in the box during the first period. Despite having eight penalty minutes in the period it looked like Hungary would be able to close out the first period 0-0 but with nine seconds left in the period when Nikita Mikhailis put home a rebound giving Kazakhstan 1-0 lead as the teams went into the locker room. Surprisingly the shots on goal were 9 to 8 in favor of Kazakhstan.
It looked as if Hungary had calmed down in the second period, on their first power play of the day Dániel Szabo took a pass from Vilmos Galló and made it 1-1 with István Terbócs getting the other assist. The host team was unable to get a leg up on Kazakhstan as things went back to the way they were in the first period. After another Kazakh penalty Hungary committed another four penalties which prevented them from taking control of the game, luckily Kornakker stood tall in the net as Kazakhstan was unable to capitalize on the power play chances. The was a mad scramble in front of the Kazakh net in the last half minute of play but Hungary was not able to squeeze the puck past Yuri Volosneko for the go ahead goal. Despite being shorthanded for significant portion of the period Hungary managed to put the puck on net 18 times verses 13 by Kazakhstan.
In the third period Hungary managed to make it past the seven minute mark before they were called for a penalty. With Terbőcs in the box for tripping the Kazakhs went to work setting up their power play, it only took 28 seconds before the puck was in the back of the Hungarian net thanks to Kirill Savitski. Compared to the first two periods Hungary played more disciplined but it was not enough as Volosneko kept his ground in front of the Kazakh net. In the last minute of play Hungary turned the puck over in their own zone, with Mikahilis setting up Arkadi Shestakov on the two on one for the third goal of the game.
With the win Kazakhstan has won the Division 1/B U20 World Championships and will be playing at the 1/A level next season. Mean time Hungary will be facing Japan in an effort to stay in the group.
Coaches Corner
“I was very satisfied with the way we played even strength, in the first 30 minutes we were playing the style of game that we wanted to be playing, on top of this we killed a number of penalties. We had a number of penalties that we deserved, however there were calls that the ref missed against them. In a game where one of the teams to stronger or faster than the other usually the weaker team picks up more penalties. This was not that type of game, we were able to keep up with their speed and tempo, so the least that we could expect is that the refs call a fair game, and I don't think we had that today. In the third period because of all the penalties we ran out of gas and we did not have enough energy to attack. Basicly we lost because of the amount of penalties we committed, the guys will have to learn from this and that they need to be smarter in situations like this.” Rich Chernomaz
View from the Ice
“Mentally we were ready, when we were playing even strength we were playing physical, unfortunately we had too many had too many penalties and in the end our legs couldn't handle it.” Ferenc Kocsis
“Well we took way too many penalties and that added up, we lost momentum and got scored on twice. I think when we played 5-5 we were just as good as them.” Bence Stipsicz
Other results
In the early game Ukraine faced Japan in a chance to still win the tournament, Japan needed to pick up points to keep them from relegation. In a very close and disciplined game the first goal was not scored until the midway point of the game when Sergi Kuzmyk made it 1-0 for Ukraine, Japan tied it up 90 seconds later on a Yushi Nakayashiki goal. Vitali Lyalka scored the game winner in the second period and Yevgen Tymchenko scored a third goal for good measure.
In the late game both Poland and France were sitting on four points and with a loss still had a the chance of being relegated. After the first period the teams were tied up at 1-1, Poland grabbed the lead in the second off of a Mateusz Goscinski goal. In the third period both teams scored two goals apiece but France came up on the short side, they will need to beat Ukraine to guarantee that they do not reg relegated.
Standings
Kazakhstan 12 points
Ukraine 8 points
Poland 7 points
France 4 points
Hungary 3 points
Japan 2 points
Leading Scorers
Points: 7, Yushiroh Hirano (Japan), Arkadi Shestakov, Kirill Savitski, Nikita Mikhailis (Kazakhstan)
Goals: 6, Hirano (Japan)
Assists: 5, Mikhailis (Kazakhstan)