The first day of the 3x3 Breaking the Ice Tour in Innsbruck, Austria, is in the books. The fans that came outdoors at the Olympiaworld saw six fast-paced games and lots of goals: 87 in all.
Of the six teams, only Great Britain managed to win both of its games over the Netherlands and host Austria to lead Group B with five points. The three Group A teams all beat each other – Hungary and Estonia each have four points, while Germany has three. Teams can be awarded up to three points in a game: one for winning or tying the game and one for winning or tying each half.
“I think this is hockey in its purest form,” said German coach and former pro hockey goalie Dennis Endras. “The guys want to play, they want to have the puck, they want to score goals, goalies want to make big saves and it’s all here.”
Individually, Germany’s Sebastian Streu leads the scoring race with eight points, followed by the Netherlands’ Guus van Nes and GB’s Logan Neilson with seven each. Streu and van Nes each tallied six-point games on Friday. As for shots on goal, Estonia’s Robert Arrak and GB’s Carter Hammill had 12 each.
“Awesome!” Neilson replied when asked about the idea of 3-on-3 hockey. “It’s a new thing to do here and maybe in the Olympics. It’s pretty cool.”
All six teams split the work evenly between their two goalies and the busiest were Austria’s Cosmo Che Reichhalter with 38 saves and Germany’s Christopher Kolarz with 32. Hungary’s Levente Hegedus stopped 28 of 31 shots for a save percentage of 90.32.
Hungary 4 – Estonia 3 (2-1, 2-2) – Group A
In the first game of the 3x3 Breaking the Ice Tour, Hungary struck twice in the first seven minutes, led 4-1 in the second half, then withstood a late Estonian comeback attempt to win 4-3. Dominik Nagy scored what proved to be the winning goal with 7:19 to play before Estonia scored twice to close the gap to one.
Estonia outshot Hungary 31-30 but Hegedus’ 28-save performance helped his team. In an extremely balanced attack, nine of Hungary’s 12 skaters recorded exactly one point. Arrak and Nikita Stepanov each had a goal and an assist for Estonia.
“It feels amazing!” said Hungarian captain Bence Paterka, who scored the first goal of the tournament. “Everyone’s skating 3-on-3, there’s going to be a lot of scoring chances, a lot of goals and I thin that’s fun. The weather is nice, the ice was great, we had some fun. It was alright, yeah.”
Great Britain 8 – Netherlands 5 (4-2, 4-3) – Group B
In Group B’s first game, John Curran opened the scoring at 2:28 and GB led most of the way, with leads of 2-0 and 6-2. The Dutch team wouldn’t go away, however, twice narrowing the gap to two goals in the second half.
Curran and Jacob Sacranti each had two goals and an assist in a winning cause, while Didrik Bax-Kristiansen scored twice for the Netherlands.
Estonia 11 – Germany 7 (6-5, 5-2) – Group A
In a see-saw contest, Germany struck first, Estonia led 2-1, Germany led 3-2, Estonia led 5-3 and then Germany closed the gap to 6-5 all before halftime. In the second half, Estonia was able to pull away a little bit and won by four goals to even its record.
Estonia outshot Germany 42-24, led by six shots each by Nikita Puzakov and Arrak, but each only scored once. Marek Potsinok and Vadim Vasjonkin each recorded hat tricks for Estonia, while Justin Volek scored twice for Germany.
Netherlands 11 – Austria 7 (1-5, 10-2) – Group B
The Breaking the Ice Tour saw its first big comeback in this game as host Austria took the ice for the first time. The Austrians seemed to have the game under control with a 5-1 halftime lead. However, van Nes of the ICEHL’s Villacher EV scored his second of four goals in the game on a penalty shot just 12 seconds into the second half, and that opened the floodgates for the Dutch. They scored 10 times in the second half and won 11-7 to even their record.
In addition to van Nes’ four-goal, six-point output, Mike Collard had three points for the Netherlands. Laurin Wempe scored twice for Austria.
Germany 9 – Hungary 6 (4-4, 5-2) – Group A
In Group A’s last game of the day, Germany took the lead three times in the first half but Hungary tied it up each time – Alex Kovacs’ goal with nine seconds remaining into the first half made it 4-4 at the break. Natan Vertes’ second of the game gave Hungary its only lead of the game in the first minute of the second half, but Germany then scored five in a row to take the game.
“You could see in the first half we had no real plan because we didn’t know what to expect,” said Endras. “It was a so-so day. We would have liked to start with a win, but we’re happy to get the second game.”
Streu’s first of three third-period goals was the game-winner. Streu, who plays for Eispiraten Crimmitschau in the DEL2, also had three assists for six points, while Moritz Wirth had four.
Austria 6 – Great Britain 10 (4-3, 2-7) – Group B
For the second straight game, Austria took a lead into halftime but couldn’t hold it. The host team was up 4-1 after nine minutes of play before GB reeled off five straight goals, ultimately winning their second game of the day by a 10-6 scoreline.
Aaron Matt led Austria offensively with three points. For Great Britain, it was Neilson of the EIHL’s Fife Flyers with five points, with Sacranti and Curran chipping in three each.
“It’s always fun to score a couple of goals, get a couple of assists,” said Neilson. “But overall, our team played great and I thought we were the better team, and that’s why we won.”
Standings after Friday’s games:
Group A: 1. Hungary 4 points, 2. Estonia 4 points, 3. Germany 3 points.
Group B: 1. Great Britain 5 points, 2. Netherlands 2 points, 3. Austria 2 points.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s action, the schedule has been slightly changed to ensure the highest quality of the ice surface.
Saturday’s schedule:
10:00 – Germany vs Estonia
11:15 – Austria vs Netherlands
17:00 – Estonia vs Hungary
18:00 – Netherlands vs Great Britain
19:00 – Hungary vs Netherlands
20:00 – Great Britain vs Austria
21:00 – Legends’ Game
Sunday’s schedule:
10:00 – Game for 5th and 6th places
16:00 – Semifinal 1
17:00 – Semifinal 2
18:15 – DJ Antoine
19:45 – Bronze medal game
21:00 – Gold medal game
There are a number of options available for watching the games. Broadcast partners include IIHF.tv, BILD.de, DAZN, wedotv and SportEurope TV, as well as Ultimate Hockey’s own YouTube channel. This ensures that fans around the globe can access the new, dynamic format and follow the Innsbruck premiere live and on demand.
Results and stats
Game schedule and results: https://www.iihf.com/en/static/72583/game_schedule
Standings: https://www.iihf.com/en/static/72584/standings
Team stats: https://www.iihf.com/en/static/72585/team_statistics
Game stats: https://www.iihf.com/en/static/72586/player_statistics
Click here for official website.
Photos: Sebastian Marko
