Ice Hockey: Kazakhstan advances into elite division of 2014 World Championship

The national men's ice hockey team of Kazakhstan whitewashed the Italian team in the final match of the World Championship, Tengrinews.kz reports. The match was held on April 20 and ended with the score of 3:0. Talgat Zhaylauov and Roman Starchenko (delivered two pucks) hit the gates of the Italian team. Earlier Kazakhstan’s team coached by Vladimir Krikunov flattened the Japanese team (2:5), British team (5:0) and South Korean team (4:2). The Hungarian team was the only team that won over Kazakhstan with the score of 1:2. The World Ice Hockey Championship Division I matches were held in Budapest, Hungary, and Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 14-20. The Kazakhstan team is ranked first in the Group A by the results of the five matches and has qualified for the elite division of the 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship to be held on May 9-25 in Minsk, Belarus.