Eurolanche

Avs on WC (12): No points for Stastny

12^th playing day was the last day of round robin games, so couple of teams had their last chances to clinch play-off berth. Based on assumptions, all teams that should be in quarterfinals really are.

 In the “after lunch” game, team USA faced Slovakia. Slovakia had to win in order to get into QF´s and they succeeded. Mostly because of two horrible mistakes by Bishop, who allowed two very easy goals in. None of the Avalanche players (Paul Stastny, Erik Johnson, Matt Hunwick, Aaron Palushaj) scored any point and Slovaks won the game 4:1. For Paul Stastny it meant that his impressive 6-games long points string came to an end.

Matt Hunwick receive´s player of the game award

Also Czechs were facing a difficult match and needed to win against Norway. And oh boy, they did. After a great game, Czechs won 7:0. Plekanec who joined the team on Monday added 3 assists and was a big reason why Czechs dominated in this game. Jan Hejda was not that busy with Norwegian strikers and added one point in +/- section.

Third game with Avs player appearance was Sweden – Denmark. It was the last game on this tournament for Lauridsen as Denmark didn’t qualify for the next round. He and Landeskog had two things in common in this game. Neither of them scored any point, and both added 2 minutes penalty. Sweden still managed to win 4:2. 

Day 12 results:

Slovakia – USA 4:1

Belarus – Switzerland 1:4

France – Germany 2:3 OT

Czech Republic – Norway 7:0

Latvia – Finland 2:3 OT

Denmark – Sweden 2:4

Quarterfinal games will be played on Thursday:

Russia – USA (Semyon Varlamov x Paul Stastny, Erik Johnson, Matt Huwnick, Aaron Palushaj)

Switzerland – Czech Republic (Jan Hejda)

Finland – Slovakia

Canada – Sweden (Matt Duchene, Ryan O´Reilly x Gabriel Landeskog) 

 Source of all photos: iihf.com