World Championships Continue in Ostrava

The group phase of the 2009 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships in Ostrava (Czech Republic) continued on 10 May with four more games.

In the first game of the day, Norway faced Italy. After the 4-1 defeat of Korea, the Norwegian players managed to secure their second win in their second game of the World Championships, beating Italy with 6-2.

Following this game, USA also captured its second victory of the tournament, defeating the Korean team 2-1 in a fascinating and very close game. Tyler Lipsett scored the deciding goal just three minutes before the end.

The game between defending World and Paralympic Champion Canada and Germany was not as close. The players of team Canada gave proof of their exceptional skills and defeated team Germany 8-0. It was Canada’s second victory of the tournament and Germany’s second defeat.

In the last game of the day, host team Czech Republic played against Japan. After the 3-0 loss against defending Champion Canada, the Czech players wanted to secure their first victory of the Championships. No goals were scored in the three periods, and also in the overtime, the teams did not manage to score a goal. Therefore a penalty shootout had to decide the game. Out of six players, Japanese player Endo was the only one to score.

The last games of the group phase will be played on Tuesday, 12 May. Norway and USA will determine the winner of group B, whereas Italy will play against Korea. In group A, Canada will play Japan and Germany will face the Czech Republic.