Ice hockey players are relegated to fourth world level due to defeat against Spain

NOS Sports•today, 2:16 PM

The Netherlands has not managed to maintain itself in the division 1B of international men’s ice hockey. Due to a 1-0 defeat against Spain in the last group match at the World Cup in Lithuania, the Dutch team drops to the fourth world level.

After both teams failed to score in the first two periods, a penalty for Justin van Baarsen proved fatal for the Netherlands. While the Heerenveen Flyers defender spent two minutes on the penalty bench, Adrian Torralba made it 1-0 for Spain at the beginning of the third period with one man more. In the remaining eighteen minutes the Dutch team were unable to come alongside.

In the run-up to the World Cup, Mason had to deal with more than twenty cancellations due to injuries and players who did not make themselves available. Among the dropouts were also a number of players from Tilburg Trappers, the best team in the Netherlands that has been playing in the German Oberliga for years due to a lack of national competition.

The Netherlands lost the first two matches in Vilnius against China (3-0) and Ukraine (4-0) without scoring themselves. In the 3-2 loss against host country Lithuania, Lennart Vosmer (Heerenveen Flyers) and Jay Huisman (Tilburg Trappers) scored the Dutch goals.

The Dutch team again suffered a 3-2 defeat against Estonia. This time Finn Filippina (Red Eagles Den Bosch) and Alexei Loginov (Tilburg Trappers) were the scorers.

So for survival it came down to the last match against Spain, which had one point left in the 4-3 overtime defeat against Estonia. Spain had twice as many shots as the Netherlands. Goalkeeper Martijn Oosterwijk (Flyers) made 29 saves, but could not prevent Torralba’s goal.

Last year, the Dutch men managed to avert relegation at the World Cup by keeping Serbia at 2-2 in the final match. The Serbs won the shoot-out 3-0, but were still relegated.