2012 Division II World Championships, group A in Reykjavik, Iceland
I travelled to Iceland with a friend of mine to spectate the first world championships with the new grouping system. Having Spain, Iceland, Croatia, Estonia, Serbia and New Zealand in the same group, this would be the best-quality Division II tournament ever played if we exclude the 1994 Pool C WC. Due to break up of Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, teams in the tournament were Slovakia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Slovenia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
I had high expectances for this tournament and it sure didn't let me down. Estonia, Croatia and Spain were the top candidates for promotion and after Croatia's two 1 goal losses in it's first games against Spain and Estonia, Croatia was out of promotion battle. Estonia was unstoppable in the tournament and they earned promotion to 2013 Division I group B tournament.
Relegation battle was between New Zealand and Serbia. Iceland was the furthernmost place they could travel to play hockey. That was one of the reasons why NZ missed 12 players from their 2011 roster, including the top2 goalies Rick Parry and Zak Nothling. The goalie who was supposed to be their n:o 1 got injured so they had to rely on their goalies number 4 and 5. Mixing these ingredients resulted in New Zealand losing all of their 5 games and being relegated for 2013 Div II group B tournament in Turkey.
Below are the photos I've taken during the tournament.
I had high expectances for this tournament and it sure didn't let me down. Estonia, Croatia and Spain were the top candidates for promotion and after Croatia's two 1 goal losses in it's first games against Spain and Estonia, Croatia was out of promotion battle. Estonia was unstoppable in the tournament and they earned promotion to 2013 Division I group B tournament.
Relegation battle was between New Zealand and Serbia. Iceland was the furthernmost place they could travel to play hockey. That was one of the reasons why NZ missed 12 players from their 2011 roster, including the top2 goalies Rick Parry and Zak Nothling. The goalie who was supposed to be their n:o 1 got injured so they had to rely on their goalies number 4 and 5. Mixing these ingredients resulted in New Zealand losing all of their 5 games and being relegated for 2013 Div II group B tournament in Turkey.
Below are the photos I've taken during the tournament.