International Hockey Saturday Update

Here is an update to our post earlier today about the various domestic and international championships taking place around the world of hockey outside the NHL.

In the KHL Gagarin Cup Finals UHC Dynamo Moscow got out to a 3-0 lead after 5 minutes of the second period and held on for a 3-2 win with the last goal for Omsk not coming until they had pulled their goaltender and there was just 19 seconds remaining in the game. Omsk still leads the series 3-2 with the next game Monday in Moscow.

In Finland's SM-Liiga, JYP Jyväskylä won in overtime 5-4 to take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead over Pelicans Lahti in their final series as both teams held the lead during their back and forth Game 4.

HC Slovan Bratislava ended HC Košice's three year run as champions of Slovakia's Extraliga in dramatic fashion when Libor Hudacek scored his second goal of the game at 5:23 of overtime in Game 7 to return the title to Bratislava. It appears there is no audio and you might have some difficulty finding the players in amongst all the ads on the ice, but it's a darn nice individual effort once you get to see the replay from a tighter camera shot.

In the various IIHF tournaments, the Division III gold and promotion to Division II went to hosts Turkey who dominated Luxembourg, by a score of 8-1 to maintain their lead in the standings over North Korea, who finished 3 points back thanks to their earlier loss to Turkey.

Division I Group B, host Poland, led 2-1 after one period only to see South Korea pull even in the second period and get the game winner early in the third period and kill off a late penalty to secure promotion to Division I Group A while Australia was demoted from Division I after their 5-3 loss to Romania.

In Division I Group A, hosts Slovenia exerted their dominance with a 3-2 win over Austria to finish undefeated in five games even though both countries had already secured promotion to the Top Division for 2013. While Ukraine beat Japan 2-1 in a shootout, it was not enough as Great Britain 5-4 win over Hungary kept them safe and Ukraine will drop down to Division I Group B for next year.

Sunday sees Game 4 of the German DEL Finals between Adler Manheim and Eisbaren Berlin, with Manheim leading the best-of-five 2 games to 1.

Also today the United States takes on Sweden in the gold medal final of the U18 World Championship in the Czech Republic, the third consecutive final between the two nations, with both previous ones having gone to the Americans.

Don't forget, the 2012 World Championships are less than two weeks away and will take place in Sweden and Finland, with the semifinals and finals taking place in Helsinki.