WC2010Tilburg.com > News > Ukraine > Ukraine breaks Japanese hearts
Datum: 24-04-2010
Auteur: Joep Meijsen
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| gms | pts | w | l | otw | otl | ||
| 1 | Croatia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Korea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Lithuania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No results available. |
| 31/03/12 | 13:30 | Croatia - Romania |
| 31/03/12 | 17:00 | Lithuania - Great Britain |
| 31/03/12 | 20:30 | Netherlands - Korea |
| 01/04/12 | 13:30 | Romania - Lithuania |
| 01/04/12 | 17:00 | Great Britain - Netherlands |
Oleksandr Matherukhin kept his countries hopes for promotion alive with a last gap goal against Japan. The game-winner fell four seconds after Japan had tied the match. Final score: 2-1.
Japan made life very difficult for Ukraine, just like they had done to Austria earlier in the tournament. But just like then, their brave effort was in vain as they ended up empty handed in a match dominated by goaltenders Yutaka Fukufuji and Kostiantyn Simchuk. After a scoreless first half of the game Ukraine scored on the two man advantage. Dmytro Tolkunov scored the goal from close range.
Japan was close to an equalizer a couple of times, while Fukufuji stood on his head to deny Ukraine further goals. The tying goal came with 1.30 left on the clock as Takahito Suzuki scored. With celebrations still going on, Ukraine silenced their opponents by scoring on the very next play. Oleksandr Materukhin broke the hearts of the Japanese supporters in the crowd by scoring the game winner.
The win sets Ukraine up for a final showdown against Austria on Sunday night.
Mark Mahon, the head coach of Japan, was pleased with his team’s performance: ‘I was happy that our guys stuck with the game plan and tied the game at the end. You don’t have to be a hockey professor to understand that we should not give away the late goal. That discipline is one of the baby steps that our program needs to take. But overall what more can I ask of this team? They played with their heart until the very last second. A few years ago we lost these games 4-1 or 5-1, now we lose 2-1. That’s all part of the development of the Japanese hockey team.’
His colleague Mikhail Zakharov: ‘We were well prepared for this game. We knew that Japan will fight every match until the end. I was pleased with our first two periods but in the third Japan played very well. They made it a very tight game.’
Geplaatst door Joep Meijsen op 24-4-2010
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