World Championships Div. I

[Calv]

Division 1 A:
Budapest, Hungary:

Spain
Hungary
Italy
South Korea
Netherlands

Division 1 B:
Kiev, Ukraine:

Estonia
Great Britain
Kazakhstan
Lithuania
Poland
Ukraine

Anyone else interested in this?

GB Currently playing Ukraine 0-0 in the first period.

I think the format is changing next year, so GB need a good tournament to stay in the top division (outside of the Canada et al division).

[Calv]

GB win 5-3 Great result against Ukraine who are higher than us in the rankings & a team who were looking for Gold/Silver in Group B.

[mark_htfc]

Do you know of anywhere where we can watch these games live? Or at least see some highlights?

Very good win against the Ukranians, hopefully we can do well n this tournament and stay in the top division.

[Calv]

Div I a:

Spain 0 - 2 Italy
Netherlands 3 - 7 Hungary
Italy 3 - 2 Netherlands

Div I b:

Estonia 1 - 5 Kazakhstan
Lithuania 1 - 5 Poland
GB 5 - 3 Ukraine
Poland 8 - 3 Estonia
Kazakhstan 2 - 1 GB

GB came close earlier to a massive shock; they went ahead 1-0 in the first against Kazakhstan who then equalised mid way through the 2nd. GB then held on until 5 minutes from the end when Kazakhstan went 2-1 up. Despite pulling their netminder; GB could not find a way to tie up and that's the way it finished.

Great effort from the GB lads against a Kazakhstan team which iced 15 (IIRC) KHL players

[mark_htfc]

Shame on the result but at least we are pushing teams close, beating Ukraine and narroly losing to Kazakhstan. If we can keep this up and maybe try get a few decent leads we might have a chance.

Do you know who we have in the GB team?

[Calv]

Netminders:
S. Murphy - Belfast Giants (starter)
N. Craze - Belfast Giants

Travelling Injury cover:
Ben Bowns - Sheffield Steeldogs

D-Men:
D. Phillips (Toledo Walleye) - J. Weaver (Coventry Blaze)
D. Meyers - C. Neilson (Both Nottingham Panthers)
M. Richardson (Cardiff Devils) - Russ Cowley (Coventry Blaze)
M. Thomas (Sheffied Steelers) - B. O'Connor (Morzine)

Forwards:
J. Hewitt - R. Dowd - A. Tait (All Sheffield Steelers)
D. Clarke (Nottingham Panthers) - G. Owen (Coventry Blaze) - Jeff Hutchins (Edinburgh Capitals)
C. Shields (Belfast Giants) - D. Longstaff (Guildford Flames) - P. Hill (Cardiff Devils)
R. Lachowicz - M. Myers (Both Nottingham Panthers) - J. Phillips (Sheffield Steelers)

C: J. Weaver
A: D. Longstaff
A: A. Tait

Head Coach: Paul Thompson
Ass. Coach: Rob Wilson

[Manimal]

Good luck to you Brits! I see that Corey Neilson and Jeff Hutchins are on the team so I made them British in the editor.

For highlights I would suggest IIHF but their site seems down atm

[mark_htfc]

We have a strong squad there. Tait is a great player for the future. I don't think we are good enough to win it but it would be nice to see us do well.

[Calv]

We have a strong squad there. Tait is a great player for the future. I don't think we are good enough to win it but it would be nice to see us do well.

You mean Dowd?

Tait is like 37

It's the first time in a long while that we've been able to roll with 4 lines of equal skill. That may not be much to other countries but it's quite a step forward for us

[mark_htfc]

Sorry I totally put the wrong player then didn't I

[Calv]

Div I a:

Spain 0 - 2 Italy
Netherlands 3 - 7 Hungary
Italy 3 - 2 Netherlands
Hungary 6 -3 S. Korea
Spain 2 - 8 Netherlands


Div I b:

Estonia 1 - 5 Kazakhstan
Lithuania 1 - 5 Poland
GB 5 - 3 Ukraine
Poland 8 - 3 Estonia
Kazakhstan 2 - 1 GB
Ukraine 5 - 1 Estonia
Kazakhstan 7 - 0 Lithuania
Estonia 0 - 7 GB

GB comfortably beat Estonia today, going 7-0 up in the first period before lowering the intensity.

Lithuania up next tomorrow and Poland on Friday. If we beat Poland then we should get a medal; maybe even silver

[Calv]

Div I a:

Spain 0 - 2 Italy
Netherlands 3 - 7 Hungary
Italy 3 - 2 Netherlands
Hungary 6 -3 S. Korea
Spain 2 - 8 Netherlands
Italy 6 - 0 S. Korea


Div I b:

Estonia 1 - 5 Kazakhstan
Lithuania 1 - 5 Poland
GB 5 - 3 Ukraine
Poland 8 - 3 Estonia
Kazakhstan 2 - 1 GB
Ukraine 5 - 1 Estonia
Kazakhstan 7 - 0 Lithuania
Estonia 0 - 7 GB
Ukraine 4 - 1 Poland
GB 5 -2 Lithuania
Poland 2 - 4 Kazakhstan

GB eased to a 5-2 win today, scoring 4 first period goals. The relegation place will be between Lithuania & Estonia as both teams are winless.

The big game is Kazakhstan - Ukraine on Saturday; if Kazakhstan win then they get promoted. If they lose then GB have a chance of the gold medal if they can beat the Poles (also on Saturday)

[racicot]

Go Ukraine! I would love to see GB get promoted! That would be quite a feat. Kazakhstan is very strong though.

[Calv]

Go Ukraine! I would love to see GB get promoted! That would be quite a feat. Kazakhstan is very strong though.

We would get relegated straight away, but it might get the media to actually give a darn about hockey in this country for once!

There are some rumours that GB will be hosting the next world championships Div I next year if we're still there. Will definitely try and get to a few games if that is the case.

[mark_htfc]

Go Ukraine! I would love to see GB get promoted! That would be quite a feat. Kazakhstan is very strong though.

We would get relegated straight away, but it might get the media to actually give a darn about hockey in this country for once!

There are some rumours that GB will be hosting the next world championships Div I next year if we're still there. Will definitely try and get to a few games if that is the case.

If those rumours are ture, I'd certainly be up for getting to a few game. Plus it is about time the local media mentioned Hockey once in a while. Having said that, at least SS are slowly starting to take it seriously with live games.

[mark_htfc]

I'm currently listening to the final period of Poland V GB, GB are currently winning 3-2 with 2 mins to play .

[mark_htfc]

GB are winning a Medal :D. Amazing feat, we beat the poles 3-2. Brilliant. Now all we need now is for Ukraine to beat Kazakhstan but 1, 2 or 3 goals and gold medal is our .

[Calv]

Great result for GB, gold would be ridiculous, but I would be very happy with Silver

[mark_htfc]

I would be very happy with Silver too but I think the Ukrainians have a great chance of beating Kazakhstan, I just hope it is less than 3.

By the way, supposedly BBC are going to be having the game live, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 459110.stm . It isn't on yet but the commentary team said if they had enough viewers tuning in they would cover the game.

[Calv]

Murphy is currently on to get the best netminder stats after todays 94% save percentage.

285:25 minutes, 138 shots, 9 GA 129 saves gives 93.5% save percentage and 1.89 GAA

[mark_htfc]

Those stats are very good to luck at aren't they? We have had a great tournament, winning 4 and losing one, at least the game we lost against are the team who could be finishing top. The feed is live now on the above link if you're interested in listening to it.

WOW, over 6000 are tuned in right now, just said over the radio. Surely the TV now will start to take British Ice Hockey seriously and give us a weekly show on local TV.

[Calv]

Yep, listening on the radio

Sky have been good with the coverage, it's always a good show that Televideo do. Unfortunately the EIHL are still paying for the privelage; hopefully the audience will increase & Sky start paying us to show it.

We really need a big sponsor for the league as well to get some more credibility, and the rumours are that we have signed a big sponsorship deal; still waiting for confirmation though

[mark_htfc]

Yeah I think the one problem though is Sky being a paid subscription. Just think how far we have come already on Sky though. Season before last they only had Highlights and now last season had live games. Hopefully stations like BBC will want to start showing highlights, as if GB are in the top pool laying against the USA and Canada to name but two can only be good for viewing.

I do watch a few of the live games on Sky but it was a shame Phoenix dropped down as we don't get any live games which is a shame.

[Calv]

1-1 end of the 2nd in Kazakhstan - Ukraine. One more goal Ukraine, come on!!

[mark_htfc]

How the hell did they not score on a 5 on 3 though? Either way that was a massive goal. Come on Ukraine, one more goal, that's all GB need.