Ice Hockey Day 2 at 26th Winter Universiade

 

GBR goalie Farell under pressure

CAVALESE/CANAZEI/PERGINE – Today, 12 December, the other six men’s teams came into action on the Italian ice. Russia faced-off against Great Britain. The Russian team is stacked with talent, a number of players being seasoned players in the KHL, the top ice hockey league in Russia. The Brits hardly made it to the defensive zone of the Russian powerhouse, but tried to survive controlling the damage the best they could. Team GBR managed in the first period but towards the end had to give away an 8-0 loss. MVP for Team Albion was without doubt goalie James Farrell who kept his cool between the pipes and let go only eight shots from the 80 he received from the Russian snipers, good for a saving percentage of 90.

GBR Goalie James Farell James Farell found himself in a pressure cooker indeed. “To keep the score difference to only 2-0 in the first, I was very happy. You know that Russia is a power nation in hockey when you’re up against them.” Team GBR was drawn into a tough pool with Slovakia and Czech Republic besides the Russians, all classic hockey powerhouses. “It’s going to be though, but the lads prefer playing these teams and learn from them.” The Billingham Stars goalie is confident there will be improvement along the tournament. “As long as we keep it solid in the back, we might have some chances. We’ll keep growing game after game.”

In the other men’s games we saw former brothers Czechs and Slovaks play against each other. The game (2-2) went into overtime (0-0) and was finally decided with Game Winning Shots (1-0) resulting in a 3-2 victory for Slovakia. In Cavalese formers Soviet cousins Kazakhstan and Ukraine played a thrilling game that went back and forth resulting in a 4-2 win for the Kazakh team.

UKR vs KAZ

In the Women’s Tournament Team USA narrowly stayed ahead of Team Great Britain, beating the Brits 2-1. Canada blanked Russia 5-0 and Spain lost from Japan 0-6.

 

C. Pierre, FISU Press Officer