TALLINN – Estonia's goal-barrage continued as Mexico was beaten 13-3 to win Group K and keep Olympic dreams alive. The Baltic nation will now be facing a much sterner test in the next round of Olympic Qualification where Hungary, Poland and Lithuania await in Budapest, Hungary, 11-14 February 2016. In today's other game Israel recorded its first win thanks to a gutsy performance as Bulgaria was beaten 5-2.
Estonia vs. Mexico 13-3 (3-1, 3-2, 7-0) Despite taking a shock lead and a valiant performance by Mexico, it was Estonia who coasted to a comfortable win hitting double-digits for the third successive game in the Sunday evening showdown.
In front of a crowd of 1,150 at Tondiraba Ice Hall Robert Rooba (3+2) and defenceman Artjom Minin (2+3) led the the winning side in points, while Mexico showed great efficiency scoring three goals in their first five shots with 20-year-old birthday boy Gustavo Martinez notching 1+1.
With the odds heavily stacked against their favour, the tactics were clear for Mexico from the outset.
"We tried to be really disciplined in defensive zone and not to be as aggressive as we had been in our previous two games while also not giving up too much space in the middle of the ice. I think it worked out for about two periods," said Mexico head coach Diego de la Garma.
Setting out their stall early to concentrate on their defensive duties, Mexico's diminutive goalie Alfonso de Alba had to break sweat from the outset as Estonia came out full throttle.
But instead of Estonia's sustained pressure materialising in early goals, it was instead Mexico who silenced the crowd with an opening shorthanded first strike.
Enrique Arturo Samperio was serving time in the penalty box for a hooking offence when Estonia went all on attack and temporarily forgot about defensive duties as Carlos Gomez drove up the puck to feed Gustavo Martinez, who surprised Estonia's Roman Shumikhin with a fine finish to put the Mexicans in front at 10:29.
The lead was shortlived as Aleksandr Kuznetsov picked out Artur Fedoruk to tie the game at 12:22 and 33 seconds later Estonia was in front. Captain Lauri Lahesalu fed Jan Lukats, who unleashed a wrister from the right faceoff circle that flew high past de Alba. Lahesalu had a hand in Estonia's third as he found Kuznetsov flying down the right boards with pace and Alexander Ovechkin's good friend since their junior hockey days hit a threading cross-ice pass to the blade of Mihkel Vorang, who reacted quicker than Mexico's Guillermo Diaz to make it 3-1 with just over five minutes to go of the first frame.
Robert Rooba boomed home a shot in the slot while on power play to stretch Estonia's lead to 4-1 at 2:24 of the second period. The same Rooba found the net once against just over eight minutes into the middle frame thanks to fine work by Artjom Gornostajev, who set up the assistant captain in front of de Alba's net for Estonia's fifth marker.
While Mexico replied at 10:39 when Bryano Arroyo converted fine work by Carlos Gomez for their second goal, Estonia hit back 1:25 later with Rooba completing his hat trick to stretch Estonia's lead to 6-2.
While Estonia stamped their authority more into the game and parked long spells in Mexico's defensive zone in a period where the hosts won the shots 22-2, it was instead Mexico that 15 seconds before the buzzer added a bit of nerve into the game with a finely taken goal starting from Luis David Gonzalez on the blue line, feeding captain Fernando Ugarte at the right faceoff circle, who picked out Roberto Chabat clean in slot and sent the puck low past Shumikhin for 6-3.
Estonia eventually got out of sight when Jaanus Sorokin scored Estonia's seventh goal at 3:09 of the third period and starting with Robert Arrak's 8-3 goal at 8:15 Mexico was to concede five unanswered goals in the space of 3:20 with Gornostajev, Minin, Sorokin and Risto Teppan also finding the net. The final score finished 13-3 with Minin closing the scoring for Estonia with 3:56 to go.
"We played with three lines, got a guy injured while Estonia played with four full lines, so in the end there was a huge difference in energy as we started to lose some easy goals and in the end they are way, way better than us," said Mexico coach de la Garma, who despite the defeat was far from dejected when looking ahead for the upcoming World Championship events at both senior and U20 level play on home ice in Mexico City.
"I think it looks pretty good. We had a lot of young players here and one of our top scorers here in Tallinn is a U18 player, Jorge Perez. There were a lot of surprises in terms of performances that we were not expecting especially not in a game like against Estonia, so we are going to have very good teams in both World Championships," said de la Garma.
"When the game was close, we could had been negative, but we were always very positive," said Estonia's defenceman Michael Mahkwa Auksi of today's win while also looking back at being back on the national team set-up during this week.
"The practices we've had were quite intense. Focusing on what we have to do, working on offensive schemes and respecting the game, each other and the other teams. I thought we did a great job with that. It is a tough tournament to play, because you cannot stop playing just because there is a high score as it is preparation for what is to come now in February," he said.
Group H of the Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round 2 is played in Budapest, Hungary between 11-14 February 2016 with Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia taking part. The winner will progress to the Final Olympic Qualification played 1-4 September 2016.
Bulgaria vs. Israel 2-5 (1-0, 0-1, 1-4) Israel bounced back from their two losses in the Olympic Qualification by winning a tight final game 5-2. Despite being outshot 30-24, 19-year-old Ilya Spektor became the hero of the day for Israel as he sealed his hat trick and the win thanks to an empty netter with 1:17 to go. Maxim Gokhberg in the Israeli net made 28 saves.
Israel's head coach Derek Eisler had ahead of this match called on his team to redeem themselves from a 10-5 defeat to Bulgaria at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in South Africa last spring.
Captain Martin Boyadjiev had put Bulgaria in front at 17:42 as he picked up the puck on the right during an ineffective Israeli power play and skated past a passive rearguard to finish high past Gokhberg for the only goal of the first period.
Having been outshot 9-4 in the first period, Israel came out with renewed energy in the second frame after a few well-chosen words during the intermission by head coach Eisler. After managing to ride out an initial storm on box play it was the individual skill of captain Spektor that got them back into the game as he picked up the puck at centre ice and skated through the cumbersome Bulgarian back line and slotted the puck past Bulgaria's netminder Dimitar Dimitrov for Israel's equalizer and the sole goal of the period.
Once the third frame was underway Rosen Hristov's low shot at 5:09 got Bulgaria back in front but Israel was not to give up that easily on this afternoon and it was Spektor, who once again tied the game as he skated clear at 10:24 with a goal that invigorated the Israeli team.
With the game very much in balance, Bulgaria piled the pressure and with Israel's Nissim Botbol sitting out two minutes for holding offence, Georgi Iskrenov created havoc but couldn't get the puck behind Gokhberg and Bulgaria's spurned chances proved costly as on an Israeli breakaway Raiter found Roey Aharonovich, who found the net as Israel had turned the game at 15:07 to go 3-2 in front.
Bulgaria, who for the first time this tournament played the entire game with one goalie, pulled Dimitrov with 2:17 to go, but despite piling up pressure, it was Israel's Aharonovich, who got hold of a loose puck and found Spektor, who thanks to an empty netter scored his third of the game before further misery was added to Bulgaria's afternoon when Israeli prospect Ori Kafri netted the final goal with 50 seconds to go.
"Both teams were pretty equal, but in the end they wanted it more," said Bulgaria's Iskrenov. "We played alright for a period or so, then got down in the second, but I thought it could have been anyone's game, but unfortunately I could not buy a goal today."
Meanwhile in the winning camp, Eisler, now in his second year working with Israel's senior team and with a previous experience of working with Israel's junior set-up sees the victory as a sign of progress as he is set to continue down the road of transition in Israeli hockey.
"Most of the players we brought along have been kids who I've started with in the U18. It's been a three-year process and we are trying to build a stepping stone for the players, and you can see a bit more hockey maturity in some of the players, but we need to keep building on that," said Eisler.
Click here for scores and stats.HENRIK MANNINEN
