Norway clinched its place at next year’s IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship – but it was a tense battle to edge past Hungary and secure survival.

Monday night’s 1-0 victory in Herning moves the Norwegians off the foot of Group B in its seventh and final game. With four points, Tobias Johansson’s team is up to sixth in the standings with four points. As things stand, Hungary is also safe in seventh, but that could all change if Kazakhstan can take something from Switzerland when the teams meet tomorrow.



Noah Steen got the vital goal in the seventh minute, scoring off Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s rush. He also made some great blocks in the final seconds to protect that slender lead. Hungary struggled to generate offence, especially as Norway poured forward in search of an insurance goal in the third, and Tobias Normann made 17 stops to protect his team’s fragile lifeline.

“Wow! It’s just relief,” said the goalscorer. “This is so important for Norwegian hockey. I’m really tired and I’m really happy that we can continue playing here. This is where we belong.”

Fellow forward Andreas Martinsen had a similar take after Norway got the job done. “This was the game that it was all about, and we managed to get the win. Now we can take our summer holidays and get some rest.

“I think it’s more nerve wracking to watch. We can only go out there and do our job, and we’re pretty confident that if we do that, we're going to have good chances. And we did it. We only scored one goal, but it was enough.”

Normann's biggest save was also his last of the night. Norway was on the penalty after taking a too many men call with 4:44 on the clock, Vilmos Gallo rifled in a heavy shot from the right-hand circle. Normann got across to make the block and prolong a top-flight run for Norway that dates back to 2005.

Had Gallo tied the game, it might have secured the point that would guarantee Hungary would be back next year. Instead, it's a waiting game to see if the 4-2 win over Kazakhstan will be enough to survive.

“We still have a chance to do something that Hungary hasn’t done before, to stay in the top division for the first time ever,” said Hungarian forward Bence Horvath. “So I’m not saying we shouldn’t be proud. Of course, we should be proud of ourselves. Hopefully things go our way and we stay in here.”

On an anxious night for both teams, Norway had a good early opportunity to gain the initiative when Gabor Tornyai sat for holding on 1:41. However, the power play was slow to get up to speed. It took 1:15 to generate a shot on goal and that was a routine effort from Brandsegg-Nygard.

However, back at equal strength, the Norwegians found the vital breakthrough in the seventh minute. It started with Janos Hari, Hungary’s leading scorer here in Herning, dithering over a shooting chance. He lost the puck and Brandsegg-Nygard raced away to set up Steen for the opener. A 19-year-old created the goal for a 20-year-old, suggesting that Norway’s young roster could enjoy brighter times if it came through this test and stayed in the top division.

“We have some really good young players coming up,” agreed Andreas Martinsen, a veteran at 34. “But they’re still young. It’s going to be fun to see how they grow and evolve in the next few years. And there’s some other younger guys. Hopefully we can just keep going and get better and better each year.”

For some time, it seemed that neither team was prepared to seek the initiative. There were just nine shots on goal in a cautious first period. The action did not really pick up until midway through the second when, at last, we started to see flashes of the kind of all-out play that a survival showdown would usually encourage.

It started with Brandsegg-Nygard landing a big hit on Bence Horvath, almost depositing him onto the Norwegian bench. His efforts led to a good chance for Norway, with Steen getting free in front of the net but hitting the post.

Then Hungary got on the power play and almost adapted a rugby tactic into a successful hockey play. Gallo got up close to test Normann and as the puck broke free, a 10-man pile-up on the Norwegian crease saw Hungary desperately trying to push it over the line. Somehow, amid the confusion, Max Krogdahl emerged with possession and Norway breathed again.

With Norway having the weakest PK in the competition coming into this game, Martinsen’s needless tangle with Doman Szongoth on the Hungarian crease seemed like a huge risk. And he was almost punished: the Magyars produced their best play to date, with Bence Horvath hitting the post off a feed from his namesake Milan.

“It was so close,” Horvath said. “Like inches, inches. But that’s why we love hockey, right? So close.”

Outshot in the middle frame, Norway looked for a fast start to the third to try and put the game to bed and secure its survival. An early power play saw Jonas Berglund agonisingly close to making it 2-0 as the puck squirmed past Balizs, but Milan Horvath did enough to prevent the Norwegian forward getting to stick down to tap home.

Chances kept coming. Steen used his pace to get away from the Hungarian defence before rattling a shot into Balizs’s pads, then the goalie pulled off the save of the game to deny Thomas Olsen. Balizs slid across his net to get a pad to the open corner as Olsen’s shot was heading inside the post.

There was more: Havard Olsrem Salsten should have done more when a turnover granted him the freedom of the Hungarian zone, but on his approach to the net he lost control and the puck dribbled harmlessly off his stick.

Little was seen of Hungary until that late power play. And even after Normann’s crucial save, there was time for a minute with an extra Hungarian skater. Steen made a huge block to deny Henrik Nilsson before Norway ran down the clock to stay alive by the narrowest of margins.

“I feel really good,” Steen reflected after a big effort at both ends. “It’s really nice when I can help the team and country with what I’m trying to do every day. I had so many chances this tournament and it’s good that I could put that one in and we could play with a lead throughout the rest of the game.”