VALDEMORO, Spain – Serbia broke home hearts with a dramatic 5-3 victory in the decisive game in the Olympic Qualification Group L, topping the group and booking a trip to Italy in February for the next stop on the road to PyeongChang 2018.

Serbia vs. Spain 5-3 (0-2, 2-0, 3-1)

A dramatic third period saw both sides experience joy and despair before Serbia edged a 5-3 verdict on captain Marko Milovanovic’s fourth goal of the competition.

He snapped a 3-3 tie with 2:34 left in regulation time as the game was getting more and more stretched. With chances flowing at both ends Milovanovic was the man to capitalize when he fired home a Marko Brkusanin pass for what proved to be the game winner. Brkusanin himself then wrapped it up with an empty net goal, finally ending Spain’s brave resistance and sparking wild celebrations on the Serbian bench.

“This is a great result for Serbian hockey,” said coach Nikola Bera. “It’s the first time in our history that we’ve come through an Olympic Qualification group, and we’ve done it without some of our best players.”

But Bera admitted there had been some nervous moments, especially in 32 crazy seconds when Serbia thought they’d all but won it only for Spain to equalize. The drama started when a Serbian goal was ruled out for offside at 9:55 of the third period. At 10:27 Spain took full advantage of that reprieve as a shot thundered in from the point and Alejandro Pedraz reacted fastest to squeeze the puck home.

Earlier, though, Spain made a dream start. First-period pressure led to a power-play goal at 11:51. Serbia cleared its zone but goalie Ander Alcaine quickly fired the puck down the ice, releasing Guillermo Bertan to score high on the glove side.

The home crowd was celebrating once again at 17:48 when Pat Fuentes made it 2-0. Ignacio Solorzano saw his shot beaten away but the goalie was powerless to stop Fuentes’ shot creeping inside the top corner from a tight angle.

“I thought we started the game really well, we got the pace that we wanted and now there’s a lot of disappointment,” said Spain’s coach Luciano Basile.

That disappointment began in the second session, which belonged to Serbia, and to Dimitrje Filipovic in particular. The forward scored twice to tie the game as Alcaine found himself busy throughout the session. Filipovic got his first at 7:29 of the second period, finding the top-right corner off Ugljesa Novakovic’s pass to put his team back in the game. Spain had a big chance to respond almost immediately, but Rankovic thwarted Javier Garcia-Arias down low by the post. Alcaine then showed his class with a fine glove save to deny Srdjan Ristic.

But there was no denying when Filipovic was sent through on the net by Nemanja Vucurevic and flashed a wrist shot high on the stick side to level the scores.

That had the game poised for a dramatic finale, and Serbia gained the edge at 4:56 of the third when Pavel Popravka put his country up for the first time on the night, assisted by the impressive Filipovic.

“Tonight was a real grand final,” Serbian coach Bera added. “Spain has a really good team, we know each other well and we play often in World Championship play. But I think this time Serbia really was better and deserved the win.”

The teams will meet again in April, when the Division II Group A comes to Jaca, in Northern Spain. And for Basile that’s a chance to build on what was achieved here.

“I think we’ve found an identity here,” he said. “We played seven of the nine periods with the kind of energy that we wanted. We’re disappointed because we had a good week at work, two good games and a fantastic first period tonight but we just couldn’t go through.”

China vs. Iceland 3-11 (0-7, 1-2, 2-2)

Iceland ended its tournament on a high note with a convincing win over China. Two narrow defeats in the opening games left the Nordic nation with no prospect of qualifying but Magnus Blarand’s team was not about to give China an easy ride. The first period saw the Chinese run into serious penalty trouble: two of Iceland’s seven goals came from 5-on-3 power plays, with a third coming from a one-man advantage.

Robin Hedstrom led Iceland’s scoring with five goals to finish as the weekend’s leading goalscorer, and there were two each for Ingthor Arnason and Robert Palsson. Petur Maark and Andri Helgason also scored for Iceland; Jiachang Bao, Longtan Liu and a short-handed goal from Tianyu Hu completed China’s most successful game on offence in the competition.

Click here for scores and statistics.

ANDY POTTS