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NORWAY RELEGATED AS SLOVAKS WIN ON SCURKO’S GOAL
By Dhiren Mahiban | Box Score
The Slovaks picked up just their second win of the tournament with a 4-3 decision over Norway Tuesday
afternoon at the Pacific Coliseum. Ladislav Scurko’s second goal of the tournament at 6:36 of the final
stanza proved to be the winner. Norway, like Latvia, will be relegated to Division I next year, while
Slovakia and Switzerland will stay up.
Scurko, who plays for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, batted in a loose puck in front of the Norwegian net
just after a power play expired. Juraj Gracik and Igor Bacek picked up the helpers on the play.
“It was kind of a simple goal,” said Scurko. “We got a power play and we just got the puck to our
defensemen and crashed the net. That was it, just the hard work in front of the net.”
Andrej Sekera, Igor Bacek, and Stanislav Lascek picked up the other goals for the Slovakians, who never
led in the game until Scurko’s winner in the third.
Norway came into this game still looking for its first victory at the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship.
But the Norwegians were unable to hang on to a two-goal lead late in the second period.
The Norwegans opened the scoring shorthanded at 11:00 when Kristian Forsberg picked up an awkward bounce
off the linesman, broke in 2-on-1 with Mattias Olimb, and fed the puck to Olimb for his second goal of the
tournament. Sekera tied it up at 15:33.
Norway went up 2-1 six minutes into the second when Mathias Trygg had a partial breakaway and was hauled
down before getting a shot off. On the ensuing penalty shot, Trygg beat Slovak goalie Vladimir Kovac
five-hole for his first goal of the tournament.
Norway took a 3-1 lead at 14:39 of the second frame, Mathias Olimb fed the puck from the faceoff dot to
Kristian Forsberg, who was all-alone in the slot. Forsberg’s shot beat Kovac glove side to give the
Norwegians a two-goal lead.
“I think the players really stepped up tonight, but we played a really good team,” said Head Coach Petter
Thoresen. “We probably played our best game tonight. But, we didn’t deliver on the 5-on-3 power play, and
that’s the difference between the good teams and the bad teams ”
The newly formed line of Trygg, Olimb, and Forsberg finished the night with six points combined, but it
wasn’t enough to pick up their first win of the tournament.
In a 1:30 span in the second, the Slovakians erased the two-goal deficit, Igor Bacek and Stanislav Lascek
both beat Norwegian netminder Lars Haugen. Bacek converted a rebound from a Boris Valabik point shot on the
power play to make it 3-2 at 18:25. Then with five seconds left before the buzzer, Lascek redirected home
another Valabik shot to tie the game.
Slovakia outshot Norway 36-25.
The Slovaks will look to add another win Wednesday when they play the Swiss (16:00). Norway will play the
only other winless team at the tournament that day, Latvia (12:00). Both games are at the Pacific
Coliseum.
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