VIENNA, 6 May 2005 — The Czech Republic shut out Kazakhstan 1-0 yesterday to finish the World Ice Hockey Championship preliminary round unbeaten and claim top spot in Group D.
In Innsbruck, Latvia punched their ticket to the second round with a 3-1 victory over winless Slovenia, who now head to the relegation round.
For the second day running, news off the ice dominated the tournament after the International Ice Hockey Federation announced Ukraine defenseman Oleksandr Pobyedonostsev tested positive for the banned steroid norandrosterone.
Pobyedonostsev is the second player in two days to be thrown out of the tournament for a drugs offence after Belarus forward Tsimafei Filin tested positive for nandrolone. Both play in the top Belarus league but for different teams.
The Czechs, playing without injured forward Jaromir Jagr, lacked their usual offensive spark for much of the game, allowing the Kazakhs to control the play for long periods.
But Atlanta Thrashers goalie Milan Hnilicka, in his first game of the tournament, shut the door when needed.
Ales Hemsky broke the deadlock halfway through the first period when his shot trickled past Kazakh goalie Vitaliy Kolesnik.
Jagr, who broke a finger against Germany on Tuesday was in Vienna but did not dress for the game. He has been fitted with a special splint to allow him to hold a stick and is expected back for the first game of the second round on Saturday against rivals Slovakia.
“They played a tough game. We couldn’t get going but we stuck with it and found a way to win. That’s what we had to do. Now we move on and can forget about this game,” said Los Angeles Kings centre Martin Straka, Jagr’s usual linemate.
Kazakhstan (1-2) must wait for the result of the Switzerland (1-1) against Germany (0-2) later in the day to find out whether they will advance or fall back to the relegation round.
A win by the Swiss or a tie automatically knocks out the Germans. A German win would leave a three-way tie that would be settled by goal differential.
After two tough losses to Canada and the United States, Latvia welcomed the chance to play Slovenia, a team that leaked 15 goals in their first two games. But the going was not as easy as expected, with the Slovenes scoring their first goal of the tournament.
Martins Cipulis and Atvars Tribuncovs staked the Latvians to a 2-0 lead but Jurij Golcic got one back for the Slovenes at 11:55 of the second period.
Desperate for a win, the Slovenes pulled their goalie for an extra attacker near the end of the game, but Girts Ankipans picked up a loose puck in the Latvian end and fired a shot nearly the length of the ice and into the open Slovene goal with 25 seconds left.
Latvia face Ukraine tomorrow in their first game of the second round.
