Iceland gave New Zealand an ice hockey lesson with a
commanding 7-1 win at the Dunedin Ice Stadium last night.
New Zealand put only one of its 27 scoring chances into the
net.
Iceland led 7-0 after two of the three periods but New
Zealand came back strongly to score the only goal in the
third period, when Dunedin Thunder's Remy Sandoy netted in
the final minute.
"The boys dug deep and emptied the tanks. We wanted to
restore our pride and we played well in the last period,"
captain Mitchell Frear said.
Iceland relied on teamwork and skilled passing and did not
resort to the rough-house tactics seen on the first two days
of the world under-20 division three world championships.
It played with speed and accuracy and used the width of the
rink to mesmerise the New Zealand team in the first two
periods.
It was a well-drilled team and had players with the skills to
penetrate the defence.
Andri Helgason had speed as he moved the puck up the centre
and captain Olafur Bjornsson was pacy up the right flank and
Ingolfur Eliasson was a sound defender with the skill to
dribble the puck up the centre of the ice.
The best New Zealand player was goal tender Aston Brookes,
who had an outstanding second period, when he let in only
four goals from the 28 Iceland attempts to find the net. He
conceded seven goals from the 55 Iceland shots at goal for an
87% successful defence.
Other New Zealand players to enhance their reputations were
Kahu Joyce, Jordan Challis and Keegan Harnett.
The most valuable player award for Iceland was given to
Brynjar Bergmann and the MVP for New Zealand went to Jamie
Lawrence.
Iceland exerted its dominance with controlled team work and
ended the first period up 3-0.
The goals were scored by Daniel Magnusson after 1min 58sec,
Bjorn Sigurdarson after 8min and Sigurdur Reynisson after 14
minutes.
There was no respite in the second period as Iceland added a
fourth goal in the first minute.
In the first period Iceland scored three goals from 13 shots
at goal and New Zealand failed to reach the net from eight
attempts.
Iceland 7 ( Daniel Magnusson, Bjorn Sigurdarson, Sigurdur
Reynisson 2, Johann Leifsson, Brynjar Bergmann, Andri
Helgason), New Zealand 1 ( Remy Sandoy).
The key game of the tournament will be on Sunday afternoon,
when Iceland plays China.
China pulled out all stops in the third period, adding seven
goals to demolish Turkey 14-0.
Turkey held China to one goal in the first period but the
floodgates opened after that and it conceded six goals in the
second period.
China 14 (Shuchao Zhang, Cheng Zhang 2, Canji Zheng 3,
Yungang Na, Ning Li 2, Peng Ji 2, Ziyang Zhu, Tianxiang Xia,
Yuhang Li ), Turkey 0.
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