Showing Some International Love: 2014 World Championship Division I Group A Review

While Slovenia didn't have much trouble advancing, it was a bit chaotic when it came to the middle of the standings. The host team, sadly, was not part of the chaos, and didn't give the home crowd much to cheer about.

Note: Most information from the (fancy) IIHF website.

Standings

Team	Wins	OT/SOW	OT/SOL	Losses	Points	Goal Diff.
Slovenia	4	0	0	1	12	+9
Austria	2	2	0	1	10	+6
Japan	3	0	1	1	10	0
Ukraine	2	0	1	2	7	+5
Hungary	1	1	1	2	6	-2
South Korea	0	0	0	5	0	-18

Results

April 20
Ukraine 2 - Austria 3 (OT)
Japan 2 - Slovenia 1
South Korea 4 - Hungary 7

April 21
Austria 4 - Japan 1
Hungary 0 - Ukraine 3
Slovenia 4 - South Korea 0

April 23
Slovenia 2 - Hungary 0
Ukraine 2 - Japan 3
Austria 7 - South Korea 4

April 24
Slovenia 5 - Ukraine 3
Hungary 4 - Austria 5 (OT)
Japan 4 - South Korea 2

April 26
Hungary 5 - Japan 4 (SO)
Austria 1 - Slovenia 3
South Korea 2 - Ukraine 8

Team Recap

Slovenia: Slovenia, for the most part, eased into first place. Against Japan, it took until near the end of the second for Slovenia to open the scoring. Slovenia though couldn't hold it, as they gave up two third period goals in the 2-1 loss. Slovenian goalie Luka Gracnar would stop over 30 shots in each of the next two games, helping Slovenia shut out South Korea (4-0) and Hungary (2-0). Slovenia started off well against Ukraine, scoring twice in the first. Penalty trouble would catch up to Slovenia though, as they gave up two powerplay goals in the second and one in the third. In the end, Slovenia regrouped and would storm back to win the game 5-3. In their last game against Austria, both teams would swap goals in the second before Slovenia took it in the third, winning 3-1. Slovenia finished first in the group, and will be playing in the main tournament next year.

Austria: The Austrians sort of lucked into the second promotion spot. They started off well against Ukraine, with Dominique Henrich scoring twice on the powerplay in the first (Ukraine had a goal in between). Austria would give up the lead in the second. This game went to overtime, where Brian Lebler would end it for Austria, giving them the 3-2 win. In their next game, Austria would give up an early goal to Japan. The Austrians would tie the game in the second, then take it over in the third, winning 4-1 in the end. Austria had a wild first period against South Korea, giving up the first three goals in nine minutes, then scoring four unanswered themselves in a five minute span (the period ended with Austria up 5-4). The game's craziness would calm down afterwards, and Austria would add to their lead in the third, eventually winning the game 7-4. Austria would enter another wild period - this time against Hungary - as both teams held a lead during the second period, but it ended tied 3-3. Both teams swapped a goal each in the third, forcing overtime. Austria would win the game 5-4 on an overtime powerplay goal. Against Slovenia, Austria would once again end the second period in a deadlock (this time 1-1). They could not do anything in the third however, and would lose to Slovenia 3-1. Since they held the tiebreaker over Japan, Austria would end up in second place, and get promoted back into the main tournament.

Japan: It was a tale of oh-so-close for the Japanese. Japan started there tournament with a 2-1 upset win over Slovenia, with Yutaka Fukufuji (remember him?) stopping 26 of 27 shots. Against Austria, Japan would take the lead early, but could not do much outside of that, eventually losing the game 4-1. They would bounce back against Ukraine, as Takuro Yamashita would play hero with a late goal in Japan's 3-2 win. Japan would notch another win against fellow Asian country South Korea, beating them 4-2. In a must-win against Hungary, Japan could not hold a lead. Japan would eventually be forced to a shootout, where they could not finish the deal, losing the game 5-4. Since they failed to get the extra point(s) from a win, Japan would end up in third place and will be back in this tournament next year.

Ukraine: Penalties would be the bane of Ukraine against Austria, as they gave up two powerplay goals in the first. They did end up tying the game and forcing overtime, but Ukraine took a too many men penalty in the extra frame that cost them the game, losing 3-2. Against Hungary, it was Ukraine's powerplay that would go to work. They scored three times on the powerplay, while Sergi Gaiduchenko turned away 15 shots in the 3-0 win. Ukraine's powerplay would once again help them, as they erased Slovenia's lead and took it on three goal (all on the man advantage). Unfortunately for Ukraine, they could not hold the lead, as they would give up three goals in the third in the 5-3 loss. Against Japan, Ukraine did keep it close for most of the game, but gave up the winning goal with under two minutes to play, and losing 3-2 in the process. To end the tournament, Ukraine would blow out South Korea 8-2. Ukraine finished the tournament in fourth place.

Hungary: Hungary's powerplay started off strong against South Korea, as it contributed to three of Hungary's first four goals. Hungary would fend off a comeback attempt by South Korea for the 7-4 win. The Hungarians would fail to score in their next couple games, as Ukraine (3-0) and Slovenia (2-0) would shut them out. Oddly enough, Hungary would end the tournament with a pair of 5-4 games that needed more than regulation. The first one (against Austria), Hungary would take the lead, give it up, and tie the game (all in the second period). Both teams had a goal in the middle of the third. Hungary would take a penalty in overtime that cost them the game, as they lost 5-4 in the extra frame. The second one (against Japan) saw Hungary end up tied with Japan in all three regulation periods. This game required a shootout, where Marton Vas (who also scored a goal late in the third to tie the game) scored three times in the shootout, giving Hungary the 5-4 win. Hungary would end the tournament in fifth place.

South Korea: The host did not have a good tournament. They started off falling behind against Hungary and could not complete the comeback, losing 7-4 in the end. It didn't get better for them against Slovenia, as they were shut out 4-0. The host came out storming against Austria, taking a 3-0 lead nine minutes into the game. They would relinquish that lead in a hurry though, and would finish the first period down 5-4. In the end, South Korea couldn't tie the game back up, losing 7-4 to the Austrians. Against Japan, South Korea would give up three in the first and could not climb back, losing 4-2. The host would end the tournament getting blown out 8-2 by Ukraine. South Korea finished in sixth place, and is relegated to Group B for next year.