2022 Women's Olympic Qualification-Group F – Page 2

By Andy Potts | 10 OCT 2021 IIHF

Iceland gave Slovenia an almighty scare before succumbing 6-2 in its final game of the Women’s Olympic Qualification Group F tournament in Nottingham.

Two goals from Kolbrun Gardarsdottir twice gave Iceland the lead in this one, but Slovenia’s powerful first line had enough to retrieve the situation and record the win – albeit tighter than anticipated.

After failing to score in the first two games, Iceland put that record straight within two minutes. And, to prove it was no fluke, the underdog bit again in the second period with a short-handed tally to lead 2-1.

However, goals late in the middle frame from Sara Confidenti and Pia Pren turned the scoreboard around and set Slovenia on the way to second victory.

The Icelanders started fast. A Slovenia penalty on 60 seconds presented them with the opportunity, and after the power play got set in the O-zone, captain Silvia Bjorgvinsdottir fed Gardarsdottir for a centre point shot that ricocheted past Pia Dukaric and into the net.

That lead was shortlived as Slovenia’s top line got to work. Pren opened up her box of tricks, executing a neat toe drag and slipping a backhand pass onto the stick of Julija Blazencik to tie it up on 4:16. But the game remained even and Iceland were good value for the 1-1 score at the first intermission.

It got even better for Gardarsdottir after the break. Her team took a bench minor, but Slovenia’s Nina Loncar coughed up the puck in the Icelandic zone and Gardarsdottir was off to the races.

The 19-year-old forward, another product of the Akureyri hockey set-up, dashed down the ice and won her duel with Dukaric in emphatic fashion.

And this was no backs-to-the-wall effort from Iceland. True, goalie Birtu Helgudottir had to make some big saves, most notably to deny Tamara Breznik and Nina Maver, but there were chances at the other end as well.

Gunnborg Johansdottir had a fantastic opportunity to extend the Icelandic lead after a turnover in centre ice but this time Dukaric closed the door.

Then came the fightback.

Confidenti tied the score, rifling home a Pren feed from behind the net. And, four seconds before the second intermission, Pren’s line punished Iceland after forcing a turnover in centre ice. Blazincek drove forward with the puck and picked out her captain for a close range finish to make it 3-2.

That lead was quickly extended at the start of the third when Blazincek walked in off the boards and lasered an unstoppable effort to the top shelf.

Iceland continued to create chances, with Berglind Leifsdottir drawing another good stop from Dukaric before Brynhildur Hjaltested fired narrowly wide of an open corner on a power play.

However, those misses proved costly and a Slovenia power play saw Katja Biscak fire home a fifth goal before, fittingly, Pren had the final say with an empty net marker.

by Martin Merk|09 OCT 2021 IIHF

Kazakhstan leads Group G of the Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualification after a convincing 7-1 victory over Asian rival Chinese Taipei and has good chances to advance to the Final Olympic Qualification.

In their way stands underdog Spain today and top-seeded host Italy in a Sunday night clash that will likely determine the top spot of the group.

One player in the focus will be long-time national team goalie Darya Dmitriyeva (nee Obydennova), who has shone with consistently good numbers between the pipes of the Kazakh women’s national team over the past few years and won the Best Goaltender award at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division I Group B.

“The team played well for the win. Thanks to the teammates that I didn’t have a lot of work to do. We were ready for this game,” Dmitriyeva said about the start in Torre Pellice.

Kazakhstan appeared at three consecutive Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1998 and 2006, once with the women in Salt Lake City 2002 and twice with the men (1998, 2006).

Since then no Kazakh team has qualified for Olympic ice hockey. Something Dmitriyeva and her teammates would love to change for Beijing 2022.

“It’s a dream for us. It’s what we’ve been working hard for. What we do right now is for playing at the Olympic Games. We do our best and wish to go to the Games,” the 30-year-old says.

Her teammate Malika Aldabergenova, who helped translating the interview, agrees: “The Olympic Games for me are really a dream because I have never played there. It’s hard to get there but we can do this and we work hard for this. We really want to play there.”

Dmitriyeva is among the veterans on the team. She played in three top-level Women’s Worlds (2007, 2009, 2011), nine Women’s Worlds tournaments in total, two Asian Winter Games, the Winter Universiade and this is her fourth attempt in the Olympic Qualification.

Like many of her teammates she plays for Aisulu Almaty, the Kazakh club that competes with mostly Central European teams in the Austria-based EWHL. She doubles up by playing in the Kazakh women’s league (QHL) for her hometown club Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk where she also helps as a goaltending coach.

She calls playing with the Kazakh national team, the Asian Winter Games and Universiade on home ice in Almaty her career highlights so far. Her favourite places to play hockey beside her home country are in Austria with the EWHL and in Canada where she had her IIHF debut at the 2007 Women’s Worlds in Winnipeg and Selkirk.

In Torre Pellice the Kazakhs will have another opponent they’re favourite to win on Saturday as they play one tier higher than Spain. It will be the first IIHF-sanctioned game in the women’s senior category between these two countries and Spain made it clear in their game against Italy on Thursday that despite being the underdog they’re ready to make it difficult for the bigger nations.

Then comes the final game against Italy, which also had a strong start in Torre Pellice and is the highest-ranked among the teams playing here in the Piedmont region.

“It’s going to be a tough game, we know that. We are going to work hard for this game and are going for the win. We just have to be positive, work hard and do the best,” Dmitriyeva said.

“We played them at the World Championship. They are a really hard team. They are strong and tough girls,” said Aldabergenova. “But I think we can beat them. If we play well together we can grow as a team and win this game.”

The two countries met each other in three consecutive years at Division IB level. Italy surprised the Kazakhs in their first meeting on home ice in Asiago in 2016 with a 2-1 shootout win. One year later Kazakhstan beat Italy 2-1 in regulation time in Katowice, Poland. In 2018 again in Asiago Italy won the game 4-1 and earned promotion to the Division IA for the first time in history before being relegated back to Division IB in 2019.

Hockey fans in Torre Pellice and fans around the world through the free live stream can expect another tough battle on Sunday night at 20:15 CET. And Dmitriyeva a busier evening in the Kazakh net than on the opening day.