NORWAY RELEGATED AS SLOVAKS WIN ON SCURKO’S GOAL

By Dhiren Mahiban

The Slovaks picked up just their second win of the tournament with a 4-3 decision over Norway Tuesday afternoon at the Pacific Coliseum. Ladislav Scurko’s second goal of the tournament at 6:36 of the final stanza proved to be the winner. Norway, like Latvia, will be relegated to Division I next year, while Slovakia and Switzerland will stay up.

Scurko, who plays for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, batted in a loose puck in front of the Norwegian net just after a power play expired. Juraj Gracik and Igor Bacek picked up the helpers on the play.

“It was kind of a simple goal,” said Scurko. “We got a power play and we just got the puck to our defensemen and crashed the net. That was it, just the hard work in front of the net.”

Andrej Sekera, Igor Bacek, and Stanislav Lascek picked up the other goals for the Slovakians, who never led in the game until Scurko’s winner in the third.

Norway came into this game still looking for its first victory at the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship. But the Norwegians were unable to hang on to a two-goal lead late in the second period.

The Norwegans opened the scoring shorthanded at 11:00 when Kristian Forsberg picked up an awkward bounce off the linesman, broke in 2-on-1 with Mattias Olimb, and fed the puck to Olimb for his second goal of the tournament. Sekera tied it up at 15:33.

Norway went up 2-1 six minutes into the second when Mathias Trygg had a partial breakaway and was hauled down before getting a shot off. On the ensuing penalty shot, Trygg beat Slovak goalie Vladimir Kovac five-hole for his first goal of the tournament.

Norway took a 3-1 lead at 14:39 of the second frame, Mathias Olimb fed the puck from the faceoff dot to Kristian Forsberg, who was all-alone in the slot. Forsberg’s shot beat Kovac glove side to give the Norwegians a two-goal lead.

“I think the players really stepped up tonight, but we played a really good team,” said Head Coach Petter Thoresen. “We probably played our best game tonight. But, we didn’t deliver on the 5-on-3 power play, and that’s the difference between the good teams and the bad teams ”

The newly formed line of Trygg, Olimb, and Forsberg finished the night with six points combined, but it wasn’t enough to pick up their first win of the tournament.

In a 1:30 strong in the second, the Slovakians erased the two-goal deficit, Igor Bacek and Stanislav Lascek both beat Norwegian netminder Lars Haugen. Bacek converted a rebound from a Boris Valabik point shot on the power play to make it 3-2 at 18:25. Then with five seconds left before the buzzer, Lascek redirected home another Valabik shot to tie the game.

Slovakia outshot Norway 36-25.

The Slovaks will look to add another win Wednesday when they play the Swiss (16:00). Norway will play the only other winless team at the tournament that day, Latvia (12:00). Both games are at the Pacific Coliseum.

PREVIEW: SLOVAKIA - NORWAY

By George T. Baker

Slovakia: With one win in four tournament games, Slovakia is looking to salvage what has been a disappointing tournament. Slovakia finished fourth in Group B and has been outscored 21-12. The team won its first game 7-4 versus Latvia on December 27 but has since lost three straight, mainly due to poor discipline. The Slovaks are fourth in the tournament in penalties, with a total 125 minutes spent in the penalty box. Monstrous defenseman Boris Valabik leads the team with 28 minutes in penalties. The Chicoutimi Sagueneens forward duo of Marek Zagrapan and Stanislav Lascek has led the way with a combined 13 points (six for Zagrapan and seven points for Lascek). Slovakia should win this contest, barring some horrendous collapse.

Norway: Undisciplined and overmatched have been Norway’s tournament characteristics. The Norwegians have been outscored 26-3 in Vancouver, and finished last in Group A. The weakest of the Scandinavian teams leads the tournament with 150 PIM. That doesn’t help a whole lot when your team also has the worst penalty-killing unit. Norway’s PK is operating at 72 percent, allowing 10 goals on 36 opportunities. It’s a coin flip in terms of which goalie will start tonight. While Ruben Smith’s numbers don’t stand out (.876 save percentage, 6.70 GAA), his play has been impressive at times, such as against Switzerland, where he held the opposition to only two goals. Lars Haugen, on the other hand, stopped 46 of 50 shots versus Canada. Once again, goaltending will be critical. Equally critical is the need for scoring from the forwards. Not one center or winger has tallied a goal in this tournament except for Mathis Olimb. There’s not much hope for Norway to escape from the road to relegation.