On Saturday the two finalists, Sweden and Slovakia were known, two teams that had an opportunity for promotion. An opportunity for Slovakia to continue the year fairy tale after young Slovaks were promoted one week ago. Croatia and Wales played for the consolation prize, for third place medal.
3/4 playoff : Croatia – Wales 0 – 2 (0 – 0)
After their match in the second round, Croatia and Wales met again in their last match on the tournament for the third place. Croatia pressed Walsh side but they could not manage to find an opportunity for scoring a goal. The Welsh girls didn´t fall under the pressure and result wasn´t changing before the break.
The second period and the similar situation. But now Welsh side succeeded to score after one counterattack with a goal from Alice Bennett. Croatia took out the keeper and tried to score an equalizer. But the Welsh side cancelled every Croatian attempt. Three minutes before the end of the match, another Welsh counterattack and easy score for Emily Drysdale. That was enough for Wales team to win the third place on the EuroHockey Indoor Junior Championship II.
Final: Sweden – Slovakia 5 – 1 (2 – 1)
Sweden and Slovakia had a draw in the second round so everybody expected a tight match until the end. And tight it was in the first period. Sweden scored first. Gunaj Zulfiyeva placed one ball into the net after skilful action. The Slovak girls showed great character at this tournament and managed to draw six minutes later. A nice penalty corner action and the ball found Swedish foot on the goal line. Penalty stroke. Calm execution for Šarlota Medvikova. But Sweden struck back. Paula Justus managed to score from the rebound after penalty corner action in the last minute before the break.
In the second period there was lots of excitement but without goals until the last minute. The Slovak side pulled out keeper but Swedish girls had a contra play with the player less and scored three goals in a row (Justus, Hartzell and Zulfiyeva). An interesting moment in the match, Swedish Paula Justus scored one minute before the end of the match and with this goal, she equals on the top scorer’s table with another Swedish Gunaj Zulfiyeva. Both of them scored 6 goals. Then Sweden had a penalty corner with a buzzer and Slovak keeper was out. Sweden bench rewarded Gunaj for her great performance on the tournament and let her shoot that penalty corner on the empty net. Gunaj scored for the victory, for the Swedish promotion and for the title for the best scorer on the tournament with seven goals.
After the final on the closing ceremony, organizer Croatian Hockey Federation awarded first three teams with medals and Sweden with the cup.
Paula Justus from Sweden awarded for the best player voted by all Team Managers.
Second individual award for the best goalkeeper went to Slovak Daniela Sutovska whose goalkeeper´s performance was astounding.