The fight for gold medals and promotion awaits: Lithuania, who dominated the attack, defeated China and won the fourth victory in as many

The World Division I Group B tournament continues on Tuesday at the Twinsbet Arena in Vilnius, where the Lithuanian national team won its fourth consecutive victory and will fight for gold medals on the last day of the championship.

In the fourth match of the championship, the Lithuanian national team dominated the attack, the goalkeeper Mantas Armalis there was an impenetrable wall, and the Lithuanians 3:0 (1:0, 0:0, 2:0) defeated China.

Already in the 5th minute of the meeting, the Lithuanians organized a quick attack, when after Paulius Gintautas and Fire Chizo the most productive player of the Lithuanian national team was in the number of passes in front of the goal Mark Kaleinikov (4:01 min.). Although his first shot was blocked, the puck bounced to M. Kaleinikov himself, and since the Chinese goalkeeper had already lost his position, M. Kaleinikov easily sent the puck into the goal and put the Lithuanians ahead – 1:0.

Later, the Lithuanians dominated the field and although they failed to score, they took almost three times as many shots in the first half alone (15 vs. 6).

In the second half, the Chinese were a bit more active and had more dangerous chances. In the second half of the half, the Lithuanians played in the majority twice in a row, but even that did not help them make more shots than the Chinese.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Lithuanians organized a quick attack, which found themselves at the top Paulius Gintautas (40:53, rez. trans. Ugnius Čižas and Edgaras Protchenko), whose shot went to the Chinese goalkeeper, but the puck flew over the goal line and the Lithuanians took a 2-0 lead.

The Lithuanians dominated the opponent’s zone, made many more shots at the goal, but the Chinese defended responsibly, and the 18-year-old goalkeeper Shifeng Chen did his job perfectly.

With the final seconds ticking away Martynas Grinius (59:59 min.) got a chance to realize the penalty and he was able to outwit S. Chen and scored his first goal of the championship, and in the last second of the match the lead of the Lithuanian national team increased to three – 3:0.

The Lithuanian national team simply dominated the attack and won 14:2 in the third quarter alone based on shots on goal. In general, the Lithuanians shot 35 times, while the Chinese – only 15.

After this match, the striker of the Lithuanian national team P. Gintautas has already collected 6 utility points (3+3) and according to this indicator he is among the three best players of the championship.

Ugnius Čižas (1+5) is only one utility point behind P. Gintautos, and M. Kaleinikovas (4+1), who is the player of the Lithuanian national team with the most goals, is two behind.

The Lithuanian national team was already without a striker in this match Paul Verenis, who suffered an elbow injury in Tuesday’s match against the Netherlands. Mr. Verenis will not be present at the meeting with Ukraine.

The Lithuanians had no major problems in the first three matches and defeated Spain 3:0, beat Estonia 6:1 and defeated the Netherlands 3:2, while China defeated the Netherlands 3:0, crushed Spain 7:1, but even lost 0:9 to Ukraine.

China 2011 – 2017 with the exception of one year, competed in the B group of the II division, but in 2017 won gold medals and advanced to Group A of Division II. The Chinese played there until 2022, when they won gold medals and in 2023. moved to the B group of the 1st division and won bronze. However, the Chinese did not meet the Lithuanians then, because the Lithuanian national team was promoted to the A group of the 1st division.

Thursday will be a free day in the championship, and on Friday Lithuania will face Ukraine, and it is in this match that the winner of the championship and the owner of the ticket to a higher division will be decided, since both national teams have won four victories each.

Friday from 12:30 p.m. Spain and the Netherlands will also play, fighting for survival in Division IB, while the next meeting of the day from 4:00 p.m. Estonia and China will compete for third place in this tournament.

The last time the men’s ice hockey championship was held in Lithuania was in 2018. In Kaunas, in the “Žalgiris” arena, and then Mindaugas Kieras, the current assistant to the head coach of the Lithuanian national team, played his 20th World Championship in a row and together with the entire Lithuanian national team won gold medals and moved up to the IA division. However, already the next year, the Lithuanians won only one victory in the higher division and had to return to the IB division. Finally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the championships did not take place for two years, and in 2022 due to Russia starting a war in Ukraine, the IIHF excluded Belarus and Russia from the World Championship, so Lithuania got a place again in Division IA, where the Lithuanians won bronze medals in Slovenia. in 2023 The Lithuanian national team has not won a single victory in this division and is now in Vilnius aiming to return to a higher level.

Composition of the Lithuanian national team:

Defenders: Nerijus Ališauskas, Domantas Čypas, Edgaras Protčenko, Tomaš Krukovski, Kostas Gusevs, Paulius Rumševičius, Artur Seniut.

Strikers: Tadas Kumeliauskas, Povilas Verenis (injury).

Goalkeepers: Mantas Armalis, Elvin Karla, Faustas Nausėda.

Schedule:

Score board

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The course of the match: