Ice Hockey Team Racks Up 5 Wins, Wins Tournament
The Estonian national ice hockey team has vindicated itself by winning the third tier of the Ice Hockey World Championships this year in style.
The team lost all of its games last year, was relegated, and then was caught drunk at Tallinn's airport on its return.
On Tuesday, Estonia wrote a completely different script, beating Belgium 6-1 after defeating Israel 16-3 on Monday, and skated away with the gold medal in Division II group A.
The team, now led by head coach Finn Sakari Pietilä, began the tournament in Serbia well, beating Iceland 4-1 a week ago and followed that with a 5-1 win over Australia 5-1 the next day.
Host Serbia suffered a similar fate, losing to Estonia 5-2. Estonia needed only one win from the last two games to win the group, and clinched the medal with its blowout victory against Israel. The last game against Belgium was a formality, but the team still won going away.
Robert Rooba, the team's 20-year-old captain, topped the scoring charts with six goals and eight assists. Eight Estonian players made the top-20 scoring charts for the tournament.
The gold medal means the team will play in group B of division I, the third tier of ice hockey World Championships, next year.
