The Korean men’s ice hockey team has succeeded in remaining in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship Division 1 Group A (second division).
The Korean national team, led by coach Kim Woo-jae, won 2-1 in the final game against Lithuania in Nottingham, England on the 5th (local time).
After finishing this tournament with 2 wins, 3 losses and 6 points, Korea ranked 4th out of 6 participating countries and will compete in Division 1 Group A next year.
The winning team of the tournament is promoted to the top division (1st division), and the lowest placed team is relegated to Division 1 Group B (3rd division).
The host country, England, won the championship with 4 wins, 1 consecutive win, 14 points, beating Poland (4 wins, 1 consecutive loss, 13 points), and will play in the first division from next season.
Lithuania, who lost to Korea, was relegated without winning any points from all five losses.
Lithuania, which could have pushed Romania to the bottom and remained in the second division if they won the match against Korea, launched an all-out offensive.
Korea responded to this and calmly played the game.
Korea, which took the lead first with Shin Sang-hun (Atlanta Gladiators)’s first goal in the second period, allowed Lithuania to tie the game in the second half of the second period.토토사이트
It was Kim Si-hwan (Yonsei University), the youngest member of the national team born in 2004, who opened Lithuania’s goal, which had rarely been opened, at the end of the third period.
With 33 seconds left before the end of the game, Kim Si-Hwan scored a dramatic winning goal with Shin Sang-Hoon’s assist in a power play (number advantage due to an opponent’s foul).
Kim Si-hwan, who joined the national team for the first time this time, scored his national team debut goal in a 5-2 victory over Romania, and led the team to victory against Lithuania.
In the Korean national team, Shin Sang-hoon scored the most with 2 goals and 1 assist and 3 attack points, while Kim Si-hwan (2 goals), Park Jin-gyu, Jeon Jeong-woo (HL Anyang, 1 goal and 1 assist), Lee Young-joon, Ahn Jin-hui, and Lee Don-goo (HL Anyang 1 goal and 1 assist) 2 assists) increased attack points by 2 each.
Korea goalkeeper Matt Dalton (HL Anyang) blocked 32 out of 33 SOG shots against Lithuania and kept the goal.
After the match, Dalton told the IIHF, “Our team played well. We knew that Lithuania (second division) was going to survive, but we fought for our survival too. I’m happy to finish the tournament with a good result.”
Head coach Kim Woo-jae, who held the World Championships for the first time after taking charge of the men’s national team in August last year, said, “We did not achieve the promotion we aimed for, but we achieved the second goal of staying. We prepared a lot, but there were many shortcomings.” We will make a young team that can be promoted to the top division.”