The USA “Arena Riga” convincingly defeated Slovakia 6: 1 (3: 0, 1: 1, 2: 0).
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The US team laid a solid foundation for victory already in the second half of the first period, when it scored three unanswered goals in less than six and a half minutes. Experienced Brian Boils revealed the result in the 14th minute, Colin Blackwell reached 2-0 about two minutes later, but Connor Garland scored the third “goal” of the US team half a minute to the end of the third.
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Peter Selarik scored Slovakia’s only goal in the 13th minute of the second period, while Blackwell restored the three-goal lead four minutes later. At the beginning of the final period, Aleksandrs Čmelevskis reached 5: 1, but a minute before the end of the regular time, Garlands passed the final result.
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Kevin Labank, Trevor Moore and Christian Volanin scored two assists, while Garland and Blackwell scored two goals.
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Four hours later, Finland and the Czech Republic will play in “Arena Riga”.
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The United States, which won Group 18 with 18 points, last won medals in Denmark in 2018, when it drove home with bronze awards. Meanwhile, Slovakia’s success in the quarterfinals is a success, with 12 points in Group A and fourth place in the playoffs. For the last time, Slovaks won medals around their necks in 2012, winning silver.
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Meanwhile, at the Olympic Sports Center, Germany defeated Switzerland with the bulls 3: 2 (0: 1, 1: 1, 1: 0, 0: 0, 1: 0).
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In the first period, only the Swiss managed to score, Ramon Untersander reaching 1: 0 in the 16th minute. Fabris Hercogs scored the second goal of the Swiss national team in the 14th minute of the second period, but four minutes later -1 returned by Tom Kīnhakls. Just 44 seconds before the end of regular time, Germany was saved from loss in regular time by the exact broadcast of Leon Gavanake.
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Gavanake later proved to be one of the main characters in the game, as the Germans won the “bulls”. In the Swiss national team, the only “bull” in the third pass was realized by Thimo Meier, but in the German team, the goal against the goalkeeper was realized by Dominik Kahūns and Marcel Nebels, who won the “bull”.
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Switzerland was a favorite in the match with Germany, which, despite an excellent start – three wins – only entered the playoffs in the last game, finishing third in Group B with 12 points. Meanwhile, the Swiss worked like watches made in that country in five championship games, but in two battles they experienced a fiasco – 0: 7 against Sweden and 1: 4 – against the unit of the Russian Olympic Committee (OKR).
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The Swiss are the vice-champions of 2018, but Germany, without the silver laurels of the 2018 Olympic Games, has to look at the previous medals from a distance of 68 years. In 1953, Germany won silver in Switzerland.
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Later in the same arena, Canada and the OKR team will compete for a place in the semi-finals.
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The championship of the Latvian national team ended on Tuesday with a loss to Germany – 1: 2. In group B, Latvia finished in sixth place with nine points.
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In 2022 it is planned to host the tournament for Finland (Helsinki and Tampere), in 2023 – for Russia (St. Petersburg), in 2024 for the Czech Republic (Prague and Ostrava), and in 2025 – for Sweden and Denmark.
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The 2021 World Championship in Riga will take place until June 6.
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