BELGRADO - The men's U20 national team played the fourth match of its World Championship campaign in Division 2 Group B in the Serbian capital Belgrade today, January 18th. Opponent of the day was Iceland.
Again, two teams that were evenly matched and guaranteed a true thriller of a match. Unfortunately, Belgium drew the shorter straw and lost narrowly to Iceland.
Iceland opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the first period. The Belgians work hard to score the equalizer and are rewarded at the end of the period. With less than a minute on the clock, Delport (#22/BEL) can outsmart Iceland's goalie Ivarsson (#20/ISL).
In the second period, the Belgians take the lead. When Jonsson (#7/ISL) moves to the penalty bench for two minutes interference, the Belgians take full advantage of the power play. Kustermans (#17/BEL) passes, Moonen (#19/BEL) finishes. Then, however, two Belgians end up in the sinbin. Schoovaerts (#12/BEL) for tripping, Van Montfoort (#24/BEL) for hooking. The Icelanders eagerly take advantage of the supremacy on the ice and tie the score through Sveinsson (#10/ISL). Toward the end of the period, Delport (#22/BEL), assisted by Blomme (#11/BEL) brings the Belgians back into the lead.
Within the first minute of the third period, Iceland manages to equalize again. And then the game becomes a real nail-biter. Four minutes from the final buzzer, Hlynsson (#12/ISL) scores a deadly goal. The Belgians still try to match the score to take the match to Overtime, but in vain.
Final Score ISL vs BEL : 4-3 (1-1 ; 1-2 ; 2-0)
Results