Showing Some International Love: World Junior Championship - Division II Group B Review

Well, that was easy for Estonia. Plus three teams finished with the same record. Who are they? Well take a look.

Note: Most information from the IIHF website.

Standings

Team	Win	OT/SO Win	OT/SO Loss	Loss	Points	Goal Differential
Estonia	5	0	0	0	15	+56
South Korea	4	0	0	1	12	+9
Serbia	2	0	0	3	6	-4
Australia	2	0	0	3	6	-10
Iceland	2	0	0	3	6	-17
Belgium	0	0	0	5	0	-34

Results

January 12
Iceland 4 - Belgium 2
Estonia 8 - Australia 0
Serbia 2 - South Korea 4

January 13
Australia 3 - Iceland 5
South Korea 6 - Belgium 2
Estonia 9 - Serbia 0

January 15
South Korea 5 - Australia 1
Estonia 12 - Iceland 1
Serbia 7 - Belgium 4

January 17
Belgium 2 - Estonia 25
Iceland 1 - South Korea 5
Australia 3 - Serbia 1

January 18
South Korea 3 - Estonia 8
Belgium 3 - Australia 5
Serbia 7 - Iceland 1

Recap

In every game, Estonia had the GWG in the first period, that`s how dominate their team was. Funny enough, they seem to get “worst” as the tournament continued. After shutting out Australia and Serbia, Estonia finally got scored on by Iceland, then continued their beating to the tune of 12-1. Probably the run-away winner of blowout of the U20’s Award would be Estonia’s trouncing Belgium 25-2. Estonia had no problem fending off any type of comeback South Korea was attempting in order to gain a promotion.

South Korea was basically like any second place team: win every game but the deciding one. After a minor scare against Serbia, South Korea put it in cruise control against Belgium, Australia, and Iceland. This set up South Korea and Estonia in a winner-gets-promoted match. It seemed like a good game, if you take away Estonia’s 4-goal first period. The loss keeps South Korea in Division II Group B for another year.

I can sum up Serbia, Australia, and Iceland in one go: All three won again Belgium, lost against Estonia and South Korea, and each split a win and lost against one another. Serbia is the team that ends up on top of the other two because of having the “better” goal differential (-4).

Belgium suffers the horrible fate of being relegated to Division III. They stayed close against Iceland, got blown out late against South Korea, then allowed Serbia to run away with it in the second period. The game against Estonia was B-A-D. What got me is that they pulled their starter after three goals (fair enough) then left the backup in to getting pummelled for 22 goals (terrible). I really wonder why they did not put the start back in after a couple goals to attempt to stop the bleeding? Just seemed like bad coaching cause the blowout to reach a 23-goal difference. Belgium finished the tournament with a respectable 2-goal lost to Australia. Belgium will now have to shake off a bad tournament and try to earn a promotion back to Division II for next year.