TALLINN – Estonia and Mexico rack up opening day victories at the 2015 Olympic Qualification Preliminary Round Group K held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
With the first round of games done and dusted at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Estonia's capital, Mexico got into gear as the game wore on vanquishing Bulgaria 8-2, while Estonia set the tone from the outset in their first game to run away with a lopsided 19-1 win against Israel.
Jet-lagged after their long haul across the Atlantic, the Mexicans started their first game against Bulgaria slow on pace, but thanks to the attacking prowess of Jorge Perez they got in front after 11:20. Refusing to give in against their higher ranked opponents, the Bulgarians battled back with Georgi Iskrenov equalizing 14 seconds into the second period. But as the game progressed, Mexico got more into their stride and soon the game started to tilt over in the Latin American team's favour.
Nikola Nikolov had replaced starting netminder Dimitar Dimitrov half-way through the middle match and the 22-year-old got off to an unlucky start conceding only 13 second after stepping out on the ice, as Carlo Tommasi's effort sneaked in at 30:27 to put the Mexicans back into the lead 2-1. The feisty Bulgarians once fought back to equalize thanks to a Kristian Semkov effort, but as Mexico turned up the heat they got their reward with two late goals at the end of the middle frame. Perez scored his second of the afternoon at 19:26 of the second period and with ten second to go Carlos Gomez gave Mexico a two-goal cushion.
Gomez’ scoring spree continued in the final frame as he netted two consecutive power-play goals for a hat-trick to stretch the lead to 6-2 and put the game beyond their Balkan opponents. Perez followed, by netting his third with 5:12 to go before Guillermo Diaz added further gloss to the scoreline with 15 seconds to score the final goal of a 8-2 win for Diego de la Garma's men.
While Mexico needed to work hard before the goals finally started to fly in, Estonia had no problem finding the net from the outset in their first game against an inexperienced Israel team.
Piling up the pressure, the home crowd of 850 got on their feet for the first time at 1:52 into the game as Alexandr Kuznetsov opened the scoring in what was to be a very long and gruesome evening for Israel.
Robert Rooba scored Estonia's unanswered sixth goal with 2:08 to go in the first frame in a game which in the end saw Estonia dominate in emphatic fashion, winning shots on goals with 87-9 and steam ahead to a 19-1 win on the scoreboard.
HENRIK MANNINEN |
