The final day of the tournament provided fifteen goals and much drama with a place in the final Olympic qualifying group at stake

Estonia v Romania (Game 5)

First Period

Before the tension and anxiety of the final game, the crowd in Nottingham were able to enjoy a goal-fest between two teams with very little to play for but national pride.

Anton Butochnov struck first for Romania with 2:05 on the clock but Estonia responded 44 seconds later as a wrist shot through traffic by Eduard Slessarevski tied the game at 1-1.

Emil Esko Key Svartbro hit the crossbar but Estonia would not be denied a go-ahead marker.
It was the goal of the tournament as defenseman Denis Saskin went coast-to-cast, beating four Romanian players before providing a deft finish in the process of falling.

Pavlo Borysenko ensured Romania wouldn’t trail at the break by netting a power-play marker and a thoroughly entertaining first period ended tied at 2-2

Second Period

Rasmus Kiik and Artemi Aleksandrov both went close for Estonia inside the first five minutes of the middle frame but it would be Romania who took control of the game, albeit in fortuitous fashion.

A wicked bounce off the Zamboni door left the Estonian netminder out of position having attempted to play the puck and Szilard Rokaly won’t score an easier international goal with the whole cage to aim at.

A short-handed tally by Romania sucked the life out of the young Estonian team as Daniel Tranca made no mistake on the breakaway.

Third Period

Tranca would go on to score twice in the final frame to complete his hat-trick and Butochnov helped himself to a second as Romania reached the seven mark and Estonia netted once through Roman Andrejev.

A game played in the right spirit with both nations being loudly applauded for providing an entertaining appetiser before the main course later that evening.

Final Score: Estonia 3 – Romania 7

Great Britain v Hungary (Game 6)

This match-up had a totally feel to the games that proceeded it with the intensity and pace ramped up.
With the winner taking all – progression to the final Olympic Qualifying round – tensions were always going to be high and every sequence of play so vital

First Period

Hungary iced the puck twice in 31 seconds as nerves were apparent amongst the visitors.
It was Hungary who had the best chance at the three-minute mark however their Captain Gergo Nagy was denied by the blocker of Ben Bowns following a defensive turnover by Great Britain.

Moments after Luke Ferrara appeared to be hauled down in alone on net, Hungary was put on the power play with Scott Conway called for crosschecking.

GB killed their first infraction and Jonathan Phillips came close to breaking the deadlock at the eight-minute mark but was twice denied by the impressive Miklos Rajna.

A second defensive mix-up by GB presented Hungary with a grade-A scoring chance at the midway mark but Bowns came to the rescue with a fantastic stop to rob Kristof Papp.
Great Britain was unable to capitalise on two power plays and the best chance for the hosts was a one-time blast by Mike Hammond which brought out the best in Rajna.

Hungary would end the period with the extra skater and would make it pay early in the middle frame.

Second Period

It took Hungary just 32 seconds to break the deadlock as Bence Stipsicz beat Bowns with a shot through traffic after being teed up by Nagy and Janos Hari.

Great Britain tried to respond immediately but had to rely on an excellent back-check by Matthew Myers to deny what looked like a certain second goal against.

Scott Conway rang a wicked wrist shot off the crossbar during 4-on-4 action but back at 5v5 it was the visitors who surged into a 2-0 lead.

Csanad Erdely was left all alone in front and beat Bowns from point-blank range from a cross-crease feed by Stipsic.

The home team did everything but score for the remainder of the period with no puck luck and the Hungary net living a charmed life.

Ferrara, Myers and Hammond all went close as GB led 30-13 in shots after forty minutes but were unable to get one by Rajna.

Third Period

It was Great Britain’s turn to begin a period with a power-play goal as Matthew Myers slotted home at the second attempt from the side of the net to finally defeat Rajna.

Striking less than a minute into the final frame gave legs to the home team as they attempted to set up a grandstand finish by tying the game at two.

It wasn’t meant to be however as Scott Conway watched Rajna cling onto his tipped effort on what was the best chance GB created before giving up the third goal.
It was a real dagger as well with a turnover behind their own net and the impressive Janos Hari scoring on the wraparound past the right toe of Bowns.

Now trailing by two, GB required another miracle but they wouldn’t receive any help from the officiating which at best was poor throughout the game.

Istvan Sofron was tabbed for two minutes by the officials who deemed a head hit on Travis Ehrhardt having left his feet, was only worthy of ‘charging’ when in truth he should have been ejected from the game.

The hosts failed to make use of the extra skater and the last best opportunity to mount a comeback fell short when a David Phillips shot from the point snuck through traffic and beat Rajna but the puck remained the right side of the goal line for the visitors who duly won the battle to clear the danger.

To rub salt into the wound, Sofron would go on to net a fourth goal for Hungary to seal the victory and progression to the final round of Olympic qualifying.

Final score: Great Britain 1 – Hungary 4

Ultimately Hungary deserved victory through a solid goaltending performance but also defensively as they gave up very few grade-A scoring opportunities and were clinical with the little they created in what was a huge step-up in performance from the first two games of the tournament.

The fact that the coaching staff, players, fans and media alike are disappointed at Great Britain’s failure to progress just shows how far Team GB have come in the past three years.

Paul Swindlehurst – “It’s tough, it’s disappointing. We’ll hang our heads for a while but we have to move on now and look ahead. I think we played well. I think that bit of puck luck went their way. We just didn’t capitalise on our chances and they did on theirs.”

Lines:

Connolly-Betteridge-Lake
Farmer-Phillips-Hammond
Perlini-Ferrara-Conway
Davies-Myers-Venus
Lachowicz

Richardson-O’Connor
D.Ehrhardt-T.Ehrhardt
Phillips-Swindlehurst
Batch

Bowns/Whistle