Our neighbors broke the Austrian hockey players in a dramatic 4: 3 fight (0: 0, 3: 2, 0: 1, 0: 0, 1: 0).
After an empty first half, the second goal just rained. Benjamin Nissner (22 min.) Brought the Austrian forward, but the blows of Rudolf Balcer (26 min.) And Richard Bucharest (30 min.) Outweighed the result for the Latvian side.
Dominique Heinrich (32 min.) Soon equalized, but another goal of R. Balceris (36 min.) Returned the advantage to the Latvians.
However, the neighbors failed to maintain their dominance. The Austrian Thomas Rafflas (47 min.) Scored in the third quarter. The teams had to play overtime and then beat the penalties, which the Latvians won 2: 1.
This victory strengthened the chances of the Latvians (5 points) in the struggle for survival in the elite division and left opportunities to fight for the first four to continue the championship in the playoffs.
In the next group B match, the Finnish hosts (13 points) dealt with the British outsiders (6 points) 6: 0 (2: 0, 2: 0, 2: 0).
In Group A, the Germans (12 points) violated the defense of the Italians (1 point) – 9: 4 (4: 0, 2: 1, 3: 3), and the team of Slovakia (6 points) after a changeable fight 4: 3 (1 point) : 2, 3: 0, 0: 1) broke Kazakhstan, who had not yet scored (0 points).
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