Honourable Goodbye for the Blue Cocks ! We were expecting a worse result from a French Team who lost 9 to 0 last year against the same opponent. Huselius started scoring for the Vikings via a splendid distant shot. Nilson continued by deviating into the net a shot from Oduya. Tarnstrom throws the puck into the cage 1 minute later. In second period, during powerplay, Gunnarson deviates one more time a shot (by Martensson) and offers a 4th goal to his comrades. At last, on the French side, Lussier scores on one-to-one against the yellow goalie. Then it’s the turn of Bellemare who adds a new goal, in powerplay this time. Oduya counter-attacks through a massive shot from far deviated by blue defense which lands in the net. Sacha Treille then imitates the Swedish style and reduces the gap 3 minutes before the end of period by rebounding a shot from his partner Rozenthal. During last period, Jonsson will deviate a new shot, from Stralman and makes the conclusion. Although predictable, this Viking victory was the witness of a major improvement within the Blues game. In fact, the French had not finished in the top 12 teams since 1995. Small consolation, but at least it is a consolation.
The Blues are OUT ! Over-dominated by a fresh Latvian Team, the Men in Blue have suffered yesterday game sequels against the U.S. No point has been added to the board and despite this huge defeat, at least they feel happy to be still present at this level of competition. At the 8th minute, Nizivijs opened the score assisted by Galvins. French defense was resisting so far. During second period, Cipulis added a goal at the 22th minute, quickly followed by Darzins. In the third period, Skrastins faked out goalie Lhenry at the 47th minute, followed by Jerofejevs 2 minutes later. Luc Tardif finally saved the honor of his team by banging the puck on a rebound, a few seconds before Ankipans, then Cipulis definitely turned the game an inferno. Counting 4 victories in a row, among which the unexpected one against Sweden, Team Latvia has showed any miracle could happen again in the rest of this tournament. We can now better understand why the U.S did not convince facing the maroon-and-white squad for their first meeting.
David Vs Goliath Despite the big challenge of facing Team USA, free-minded French players had nothing to loose tonight. First goal by Okposo was scored in powerplay after 5 minutes, managing deflecting the puck from the edge of his stick while he was falling. Backes scored behind in double powerplay by standing just in front of the cage. In fact, Team France remained short-handed during more than half of the first period. Quessandier even took a 5' penalty. When statistics count 10 times more goal shots, then there is no question mark about the game outlet. In the second period, American acceleration confused the helpless Men in blue and Shannon easily entered the puck shooting from far. Ballard completed the score at the 28th minute. On the French side, Zwikel executed a reverse pass deviated in the cage zone to the net by Yorick Treille. The lack of agressivity of French defense let O'Sullivan increase the score at the 30th minute
During A new French powerplay, Lhenry assisted Bellemare from the back of arena, action which ended by a second goal for the Blue shirt. Although the French opposed a much better resistance after a while, a shot of Johnson in powerplay guaranteed a 6th goal for the Americans in the third period. The boards recorded a 41 shots to 16 proportion in favour of USA ! Obviously Team France was unfortunately not convincing. It missed the power, the speed and above all... the faith !
The Cocks can sing The challenge of French Team was to avoid being pushed back to relegation. Germany on her side, had nothing to risk as the organizer of 2010 World Championships, providing her from getting down to Division I.
The Blue Men were the first to open the score after 3 minutes (Anthoine Lussier), catched up with Jochen Hecht who equalized in powerplay. Vigorous and determinated to stay in Elite class Hockey, France took advantage again by Luc Tardif at the 17th minute, assisted by Captain Laurent Meunier.
In second period, the Germans more incisive faced a solid defensive block, whose main representative is the fabulous goalie Fabrice Lhenry (see picture), one of the best in the tournament so far. After many attempts from both sides, third period demonstrated no evolution in score, taking the Cock Team to Third rank of group B, which can be considered as a little miracle, during this intense night in Bern.
What a clumsy game ! Swiss and French played a brutal Hockey, full of mistakes and imprecisions. Whole audience in the arena was of course supporting the Hosting country team, which might have felt too much pressure according to over-estimated expectations. This game has totalized no more than 16 penalties, 7 against Switzerland, 9 against France. One little Helvetic goal has been scored by Pluess in the first period during powerplay, whereas one little French goal by Yorick Treille has been canceled due to zone trespassing. Good thing about this meeting is that one can only expect better for the next games on sunday with other opponents of the group: Germany and Russia.
Team PLAYERS Composition
Play French National Anthem
Forwards : Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Stéphane Da Costa, Damien Fleury, Laurent Gras, Kevin Hecquefeuille, Anthoine Lussier, Laurent Meunier, Cyril Papa, Damien Raux, François Rozenthal, Luc Tardif, Sacha Treille, Yorick Treille, Jonathan Zwikel
Defensemen : Baptiste Amar, Vincent Bachet, Kevin Igier, Gary Leveque, Antonin Manavian, Mathieu Mille, Benoît Quessandier, Thomas Roussel
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