There was something on the line in every game of the final day.
Game One: Kazakhstan 9-1 Slovenia
Despite losing all four games thus far, Slovenia could avoid relegation with a regulation victory against Kazakhstan, with the latter suffering that fate in their place.
Slovenia desperately needed to score the first goal. They had two opportunities to do so
Arwen Nylaander rifled a shot high on a nice chance left circle, while Sara Confidenti was robbed by a brilliant pad save on a breakaway.
In between times, Dariya Moldabay struck the post and crossbar on separate attempts before Kazakhstan opened the scoring through Yekaterina Kutsenko on the rebound.
Kazakhstan broke the game wide open in the middle frame, ensuring their status in this division for next season. Moldabay was finally rewarded as she potted a rebound to make it 2-0.
When Slovenia conceded a third goal, heads went down and Kazakhstan ran riot, netting four times inside four minutes. Anna Pyatkova, Pernesh Ashimova, Moldabay and Alexandra Voronova got on the scoresheet as Kazakhstan led 6-0 through forty minutes.
Kazakhstan made it seven early in the middle frame but there would be some consolation for Slovenia. Confidenti scored a wonderful short-handed tally to get her nation on the board.
Kazakhstan had the last word with two late goals through Tatyana Koroleva and Kutsenko to round off a comprehensive victory.
Game Two : Latvia 3-1 Korea
In pole position for the silver medal, Latvia looked to avoid defeat to claim second place.
Korea required at least an overtime victory to give themselves any shot of winning the bronze medal ahead of Italy versus Great Britain in the final game.
FIRST PERIOD
The opening frame was as lopsided a period as we’ve seen in this tournament. Korea took the game to Latvia with the latter putting themselves under intense pressure with defensive zone giveaways and countless icings.
Korea deservedly struck at the nine-minute mark through Eunji Lee to take a 1-0.
They went close to doubling the lead but Taeyon Kim struck the crossbar while on the power play.
With three minutes remaining, Latvia scored with their first recorded shot of the game. On a broken play, against the run of play, Hanna Strause ripped a shot home from the right circle to tie the time at 1-1.
SECOND PERIOD
After dominating the shot clock 16-1 in the opening frame, it was an even bigger blow to Korea when Latvia struck on the power play inside five minutes of the middle frame.
Liga Miljone found the twine with a blistering point shot and the silver medal was now well within reach.
Korea continued to dominate possession and zone time without being able to convert on the scoreboard.
When Latvia constructed rare attacks they looked dangerous.
After escaping the penalty box Miljone was on a partial breakaway and as she shot appeared to be hauled down by two opponents. In the melee, the netminder was bowled over along with the cage and the puck crossed the goal line.
Somehow it was called no goal, with no penalty shot and or penalty on the play.
Late in the frame, Miljone streaked away once more creating a 2v2 situation. She beat one opponent and rattled a shot off the crossbar.
THIRD PERIOD
Latvia battened down the hatches in the final frame as Korea peppered the net without success.
With time running down Latvia scored an insurance marker through Kjara Paula Zelubovska to clinch the silver medal in fine style.
Game Three: Italy 4-0 Great Britain
With Latvia defeating Korea in regulation, Great Britain was guaranteed a bronze medal, but a silver was now out of reach.
The target was to better last year’s points total and put a dent in Italy’s perfect record.
The gold medallists had yet to concede a goal in this tournament through four regulation wins and maintaining that was high on their agenda.
Italy gave a start to their backup netminder but it made no difference.
Great Britain generated just two chances of note, one at either end of the game.
Katie Marsden was the shooter on both occasions but could neither score on a snapshot nor a breakaway in the dying moment of the game.
The gold medal winners were a class apart, moving the puck with impunity and completely dominating the hosts, who didn’t help themselves with defensive giveaways and poorly worked breakouts.
Matilde Fantin broke the deadlock with five minutes remaining in the opening frame as it took the power play to get the puck past Nicole Jackson.
Great Britain’s netminder was superb and stopped Italy from running riot.
The home nation was more competitive in the middle frame but would have been disappointed to give up two weak goals after fighting so hard.
Anna Cuomo was twice allowed to walk through the slot to score unattended.
Great Britain ran into penalty trouble in the final frame but battled hard until the end.
Kayla Tutino netted Italy’s fourth with the extra skater to wrap up the scoring and the gold medallists kept a fifth consecutive clean sheet to round out a perfect week.
An unconfirmed statisic is that Italy become the first (women’s) team to go through a tournament without conceding a goal.
“We had a tough start at the beginning of the week. We’ve grown into this tournament, we had a lot of change this year so we’re proud of where we ended up (winning bronze). We’ve not medalled in this group since 2009, so it’s a big acheivement, but I do think we have more to give in future years.” – Louise Adams
I have at least one more article in the pipeline regarding this fanatstic tournament, which will look at the progress of Great Britain and what was achieved this past week.
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