Last Pool Games Played in Ostrava

At the start of the third competition day on 12 May, it was already clear that the teams of Canada, Japan, USA and Norway will proceed to the semi-finals and thus are directly qualified for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, as they had won two games in their respective group and only one game was ahead of them.

The first game of the day was played by Italy and Korea, who fought for the third place in pool B. Korea, defeated Italy 2-1. All goals were shot in the first period and even though both teams showed strong performances and had many chances to score afterwards, they did not manage to score again.

The other game of pool B had to determine the winner of this group. Norway faced the USA in an intense, fast and offensive Ice Sledge Hockey game. Norway had the better start and was ahead 2-0 after only five minutes. Team USA scored in the middle of the last period but did not manage to score another goal. Norway therefore took the first position in pool B and will play Japan in the semi-finals, whereas the USA will have to play against their neighbour Canada.

The Canadian players again demonstrated their extraordinary skills and defeated Japan 7-0. Canada won all three games of the group phase wherein each was a shut-out, giving them a total of 19 goals.

Host team Czech Republic and Germany played against each other to determine the third and fourth position of pool A. No goals were scored in all three periods and therefore the overtime had to decide the game. German player Segreff scored the decisive goal, leaving the Czech team with three losses in three games of the group phase.

Germany will face Italy today, whereas the Czech Republic will play against Korea. The winners of both games will directly qualify for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games whereas the losers will have to play a Paralympic Qualifier later this year against the finalist of the 2009 Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships (B Tournament), namely Estonia and Sweden.