A change of pace from the ranting mood I was in earlier this week. The lower divisions in the World Championship schedule are wrapping up. Here is the end of Division II (Preview here).
Division III (Host: Iceland)
Standing
1 (Promotion) - Estonia 5W - 0L - 15PTS - +28GD
2 - Spain 4W - 1L - 12PTS - +12GD
3 - Croatia 3W - 2L - 9PTS - +14GD
4 - Iceland 2W - 3L - 6PTS - -7GD
5 - Serbia 1W - 4L - 3PTS - +7GD
6 (Relegation) - New Zealand 0W - 5L - 0PTS - -54GD
Estonia and Spain seemed like teams that wanted a challenge. The only time these two teams didn't win by more than three was when they face the two teams with a negative goal differential (Iceland and New Zealand). Croatia acted like a more dominate team, beating teams by atleast 3 goals. Their only losses were both 3-2. How Iceland ended up fourth is a mystery, it was like Bryzgalov was in net for them. If Bryzgalov was Iceland, then Fleury was New Zealand. The only upside for them was that in two of their losses, they kept their opponents to single digits. I definitely thought New Zealand could hold their own, now they have a whole year to figure it out in time for Division III.
Serbia deserve their own paragraph. They played the top teams tight, even having a 2-1 lead over both Estonia and Spain before losing. I mentioned this before: it is rare to see a bottom 2 team with a plus goal differential. Now, the 17-0 New Zealand win really skews the number, but make no mistake, this team came to play and (pains me to admit it) should have had a top three finish.
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