PostedMay 20, 2022, 10:26 p.m.
The bronze medalists at the last Olympics struggled to win against the Kazakhs. In Group B, Latvia won the duel of the underprivileged against Austria.
The joy of the Slovaks after the opener.
AFP
Kazakhstan continues to surprise at the World Cup in Finland. After hurting Switzerland (2-3) and Canada (3-6), the Kazakhs made Slovakia tremble, who finally won 4-3.
The bronze medalists at the last Olympics started the game on the right track by opening the scoring through Andrej Kollar (13th). But the trained players Yuri Mikhailis have the resource and Kirill Panyukov proved it by equalizing (16th). Better, in the 18th, Dmitri Shevchenko placed his colors in the lead.
It took an unnecessary foul by Pavel Akolzin in the second half to give the Slovaks five minutes of power play. A power play from which they took advantage since Martin Fehervary (30th) and Adam Liska (34th) increased the score from 1-2 to 3-2.
In the 34th, Juraj Slafkovsky gave Craig Ramsay’s players a two-step lead from the penalty spot, a goal that turned out to be the game-winning goal as Kirill Panyukov scored twice (44th) to restore hope to his.
Last, the Kazakhs still have to play against Germany (Sunday) and against Italy, penultimate, in a “final” (Monday). The three points of the victory allow the Slovaks to take the provisional fifth place before duels against Italy (Saturday) and Denmark (Tuesday).
Austria in danger
In group B, the duel of the badly off between Austria (6th) and Latvia (7th), both with three points, returned to the Baltics after shots on goal (4-3 tab).
In this meeting, everything, or almost, was played in the second period. The Austrians, who tried more (32 shots to 21) opened the scoring through Benjamin Nissner (22nd). This advantage did not last, the Latvians scoring twice in stride by Rudolfs Balcers (26th) and, in numerical superiority, by Rihards Bukarts (30th).
Stung, the Austrians equalized in the 32nd thanks to Dominique Heinrich, but they still joined the locker room behind, because of Rudolfs Balcers who scored a third goal for Latvia (36th).
In the last third, it was the Austrian Thomas Raffl (47th) who equalized. His goal was the last and the two teams found themselves on penalties.
In this game, the Latvians and their goalkeeper Artur Silovs were superior (2 goals to 1) and, thanks to this victory, passed their evening opponent in the standings to take fifth place.
Austria is penultimate before facing Finland (Saturday) and the last of the group, Great Britain (Monday).