2024-03-20 17:58:43
The national ice hockey team of Bulgaria for juniors up to 18 years of age achieved a third consecutive victory at the world championship in Division II, group “B” in the Spanish city of Pucherda.
After winning against Israel and hosts Spain in their first two matches, in their third match of the tournament, head coach Derek Eisler’s alumni beat Taiwan 8:2 (3:1, 3:0, 2:1) and at least for a few hours topped the standings with eight points out of a possible nine.
A hat trick for the victory was achieved by Diane McMullin, who was accurate once in each third, Christian Pandilov and Alexander Kozhuharov added two goals each, and Lubomir Asparuhov was also accurate once.
The result in the match was opened in the ninth minute by Yu-Chuan Chen, who broke through the middle of the Bulgarian defense on his own.
However, the response of the Bulgarian team was instantaneous and within the next 30 seconds a complete turnaround took place on the ice. First, Pandilov equalized immediately after the ball was released in the middle, and a few seconds later, McMullin scored to make it 2:1. By the end of the first third, Asparuhov went up to 3:1 with numerical superiority.
In the second 20 minutes of the match, Bulgaria had the most serious advantage, which was expressed in three unanswered goals – the two by Kozhuharov, separated by the second by McMullin.
A little more than a minute after the start of the last third, Pandilov went up to 7:1, and in the eighth minute of the period, McMullin completed his hat trick.
The final 2:8 was fixed by Yun-Shen Chan five minutes before the end.
The next match of the national team is on Thursday at 14:00 Bulgarian time against the Chinese team, which started with two victories. At 17:30 today, the Chinese play Australia in their third match.