WMIB: Romania, Spain and China take victory on the final day of the tournament
by Risto Pakarinen|05 MAY 2026
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Spain beat the Netherlands 4-0, China beat Estonia in overtime and finished second, while Romania handed Korea a 4-1 loss. 

"It's amazing, it's a big deal for us, the whole team, and for Estonian hockey. It was amazing to get to be the captain of this team," said Estonia's Robert Arrak. 

Romania – Korea, 4-1 (1-0, 2-1, 1-0)
 
Both Romania and Korea came to the tournament looking to win promotion back to Division 1, Group A. Romania was relegated from Group A last year, Korea the year before, and both nations are hungry to get back.
 
However, Estonia had already clinched promotion to Group A after the previous game day so all that Korea and Romania had left to play for were bragging rights.
 
Romania got on the board first, on the power play. Balazs Peter ran the play from the point and sent the puck to Hunor Csaszar at the right faceoff point. He had a wide-open net, but instead of shooting, Csaszar waited for Yevgeni Skachkov to get to the far post, where he had an easy task to tap in Csaszar’s brilliant pass to make it 1-0 at 8:13.
 
Tamas Reszegh had a great opportunity to double Romania’s lead on a penalty shot but couldn’t fool Korea’s goaltender Yeonseung Lee.
 
Korea tied the game in the second period, also on the power play, also after a gorgeous tic-tac-toe play.
 
Sangwook Kim sent a pass through the Romanian box across the zone, Sanghoon Shin sent it immediately to the other post, where Minwan Kang slammed it in to tie the game at 7:26.
 
Romania made it 2-1 three minutes later.
 
A hard forecheck forced a Korean defender to make a pass attempt, which Tamas Kanya intercepted. He waited for Lee to make a move, and when he did, Kanya dropped the puck to Oliver Gecse, who had an easy task firing it in from up close and giving Romania the lead again.
 
Romania’s power play struck again at 18:15 into the period, now from the other side.

Balazs Peter found Tamas Reszegh by the side of the net, and he quickly sent the puck to Csaszar in the slot, and Lee only got a piece of Csaszar’s one-timer.
 
The same trio was behind Romania’s fourth goal as well. Balazs Peter won a puck battle in the corner and found Csaszar in the high slot. He faked a shot and passed the puck to Reszegh, who easily placed the puck into an empty Korean net to make it 4-1 at 14:47.
 
Spain – Netherlands, 4–0 (1–0, 0–0, 3–0)
  
With the win, Spain finished fifth in the tournament for the third year in a row. All four Spanish goal scorers netted their first goals of the tournament, and goaltender Raul Barbo made 29 saves en route to a shutout.
 
Spain got on the board early when Alfonso Garcia won a puck battle in the corner and sent it to Alejandro Burgos at the blue line. Burgos moved it across to his defensive partner, Bruno Baldris, whose wrister beat Martijn Oosterwijk high on the glove side to make it 1–0 at 3:49.
 
The Netherlands had a great opportunity to tie the game when they went on the power play six minutes into the third period, but somehow it was Spain that created the most dangerous chances.
 
With 8:57 remaining, Pablo Zaballa sent a spinorama pass from behind the net, and the puck traveled across the zone to Garcia, who sniped it from the point, beating Oosterwijk high on the stick side to double Spain’s lead with his first goal of the tournament.
 
The Dutch made a final push by pulling Oosterwijk but could not solve Barbo in Spain’s goal.
 
With 2:47 remaining, Zaballa grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone, drove toward the Dutch net, and fired a wrister that beat Oosterwijk on the short side. It was Zaballa’s first goal of the tournament.
 
To cap it off, Paul Cerda scored his first goal of the tournament at 18:40 of the period when he grabbed a rebound and roofed it to make it 4–0 to Spain.
 
Estonia – China, 3-4 SO (0-2, 1-1, 2-0, 0-0)
 
Estonia had a hard time getting up for the game, understandably, since the team had already secured their promotion. China, on the other hand, needed a win to finish second in the tournament that was played on their home ice.
 
China got the win after a penalty shootout, and both teams seemed pleased.
 
Early on, the game seemed almost lopsided as China got off to a two-goal lead in the first period.
 
At 4:40, Yuyang Hou—the tournament’s leading scorer—fired a wrister from the slot and made it 1-0 to China. With 4:43 remaining in the period, China doubled their lead on the power play. Jing Wang found Jilong Yu by the side of the net, and he drove to the net and beat Conrad Molder.
 
Estonia got into even more trouble early in the second period when Hou scored his second goal of the night and his sixth of the tournament. He grabbed a rebound and, showing great patience, simply delivered the puck over the goal line to make it 3-0 at 2:11 into the period.
 
But Estonia rallied back.
 
David Timofejev scored his sixth goal and ninth point of the tournament with a lacrosse-style goal that surprised Tu in China’s net at 11:10 into the period.
 
With 11:01 remaining in the third period, Niklas Sildre scored his first goal of the tournament and made it a one-goal game again when he went coast-to-coast and fired a wrister that beat Tu high on the stick side.
 
Just 23 seconds later, Mark Viitanen tied it with a snap shot from the slot, sending the game into overtime. Robert Arrak picked up an assist.
 
Neither team scored in overtime, and the shootout was tied at 2 when Mingju Zheng scored and sent the home crowd into a frenzy.

Final standings

1. Estonia (13 points)
2. China (10)
3. Romania (10)
4. Korea (9)
5. Spain (3)
6. Netherlands (0)
 

Directorate Awards:
Best Goalkeeper: Attila Adorjan, Romania
Best Defender: Haoxi Wang, China
Best Forward: David Timofejev, Estonia