TALLINN – Mexico and Estonia continued their winning streaks during the second day of Olympic qualification in Group K. Prolific powerplay was the key as Mexico blanked Israel 5-0 while Estonia steamed ahead to beat Bulgaria 26-0 and falling just short of their all-time scoring record. With a couple of wins each, Mexico and Estonia now go head-to-head in a Sunday night showdown where the winner progress to the next round in February.

Mexico vs. Israel 5-0 (2-0, 1-0, 2-0)

Penalty calls proved costly for Israel as Mexico got their power play in tune during a solid second consecutive win. Roberto Chabat led the way with three goals in one-man advantage for the Latin Americans while netminder Alfonso de Alba recorded a shutout.

Bundling in the first goal of the game on a power play from close range saw Chabat bring the Mexicans in front after 8:43 after fine work by Brian Arroyo from the left side. A well-worked move at 16:58 once again proved to be a productive way for finding the net. Israel's captain Ilya Spektor sat out a tripping call when Fernando Ugarte moved the puck to Arroyo, who once again picked out Chabat in front of the net as Mexico doubled their lead.

When Christian Smithers scored Mexico's third at 4:36 of the second period it looked like the game would be well and truly over, but a dogged Israel worked itself more into the game led by Spektor and lively Roey Aharonovich, who both came close for Israel as they were denied by fine goaltending from Mexico's Alfonso de Alba. With Mexico already serving a minor penalty for too many players on the ice, Israel got their golden opportunity with a 5-on-3 after Jorge Perez's interference call for Mexico at 15:03. Israel coach Derek Eisler took a time-out to give his players a breather and requesting more traffic, but Mexico's able netminder Alfonso de Alba kept out any Israeli attempts on goal.

Any chance for an Israeli fightback faced an even steeper uphill task when at 10:25 of the third period Chabat scored his third of the afternoon. Maxim Gokhberg in the Israeli net can take a lot of credit for his performance before Mexico's captain Ugarte's solo effort at 16:25 closed the scoring in a 5-0 win, which pleased Mexico head coach Diego de La Garma.

"We are content with the victory, but we should have scored way more goals. Their goalie was pretty good, but we managed to get an okay win," he said as his young team is getting ready for the decider against Estonia, which proves to be of another calibre.

"It's going to a tough one as Estonia is way better than any of the other teams in this group. Their speed, experience and shooting ability are really good. But if we play a very solid defensive game we might have a chance to be able to compete with them, we'll see," said de La Garma.

As for Israel, despite two straight defeats, Derek Eisler, in second season at the helm of the senior national team found signs of promise compared to the opening day loss against Estonia.

"Compared to Estonia, Mexico is a little bit more like we are, but they scored a lot more on power play. They scored early and if we scored on ours in the second period, it could have been pretty even, but we just didn't score," said Eisler, whose team is now up against fellow winless Bulgaria in their final day, where Israel will be aiming to redeem themselves from their last meeting at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in South Africa last spring.

"I would like to see us rebound from the 10-5 loss we had against Bulgaria in South Africa and I think that should be good motivation for us going into it," he said.

Estonia vs. Bulgaria 26-0 (10-0, 8-0, 8-0)

Estonia recorded their second emphatic scoreline in a blowout win, which in the end turned into a battle for the young Estonian team to enter the history books.

When Robert Arrak scored his fifth of the night and Estonia's 25 unanswered goal, the scoreboard showed 5:17 to go of the game. To beat a 27-1 win against South Africa from 16 March 1994 was in the minds of many of the Estonian players as they relentlessly surged forward at the end of their second match against Bulgaria.

With 102-9 in shots in Estonia's favour, and Robert Rooba leading the scoring with 5+6, closely followed by his line-mate Vassili Titarenko on 5+4, credit must be given to Bulgaria's netminder Nikola Nikolov, who played the final 30:36 of the game and where his 47 saves in the end denied Estonia's record-chasing pack.

Estonia came out of the game in full throttle and Robert Rooba missed a clear-cut chance eight seconds straight after face-off. Just like in their opening game last night, Alexandr Kuznetsov set the tone for Estonia, scoring their first goal, this time after 1:16 when Mihkel Vorang picked him out in front of the net. Captain Lauri Lahesalu hit the inside of the post soon after from the blueline, before Rooba sailed through the Bulgarian defence with an unassisted effort at 3:14 for Estonia's second.

The first line out was out in full force once again when Estonia found the net for their third goal. Rooba won a face-off at the right before Artjom Gornostajev picked out Titarenko unmarked in the slot. 24 seconds later with the same line still out on the ice, Mikhel Sinikas, the tallest player of the tournament at 199 cm, saw his blueline effort sail in for a 4-0. Two Finnish-based players combined for Estonia's fifth when Silver Kerna picked out Espoo Blues prospect Arrak, who finished high at 8.57. A Michael Mahkwa Auksi blueliner found its way behind Dimitar Dimitrov, who started in Bulgaria's net at 10:43 and before the first frame was over, Arrak had scored a hat-trick and Estonia scored ten unanswered goals.

"These guys are great hockey players, so there is not really that much you can do," said Bulgaria's Georgi Iskrenov following their 26-0 loss. "We have a lot of young players, but they don't get a lot of opportunities in Bulgaria, but they have hockey sense and we try to focus on that, to get them experience and not focus too much on what the score will be," he said as Bulgaria aims to bounce back in their final game against Israel.

"I don't think it's going to be an easy game at all," said Iskrenov. "Estonia kept them to a lower score than against us, and I hope we are going to get a win out of that one."

For the Estonians they now need to stay fully focused on what lies ahead for them when only a win in their final game versus Mexico will be good enough.

"It seems like they will be our toughest opponent, but we just need to continue to play like we done in the first two games, not lower our level of play and just keep on going," said netminder Villem-Henrik Koitmaa.

HENRIK MANNINEN