SCOTLAND held on by the skin of their teeth to complete sneak a dramatic 11-10 victory over the Netherlands in yesterday’s 7th/8th place play-off at the University of Manchester Armitage Centre.
Convincingly beaten by England the previous evening, Scotland were looking to bounce back with a welcome win, although they were pushed a lot harder than they expected by a resilient Netherlands.
Brendan Healy top-scored for Scotland with four goals, while his brother Ian weighed in with a valuable hat-trick.
David Gill and Dan Heighway both bagged braces for Scotland as they led 4-3 after the first quarter and then 6-5 at half-time.
The Scots extended their advantage to three goals when they edged the penultimate quarter 4-2 to edge within touching distance of a credible seventh place finish.
But the Netherlands had other plans and staged a late rally.
Alex Jones impressed with five goals and Scott Janssen netted a well-taken hat-trick for the Dutch as they looked to spring a surprise.
Graham Bergsma and Kyle van Oostendorp were also on target as the Netherlands won the final quarter 3-1 and clawed back to within one goal of leveling and forcing overtime.
Scotland goalkeeper Ethan Harris starred with ten saves to keep the Dutch at bay, while Teddy van Opstal impressed for the opposition with nine saves in one of the most entertaining matches of this year’s tournament.
And so it’s down to the United States and Canada to battle it out for this year’s gold medal, while Japan and Australia clash for the bronze medal.
England and Germany play each other for the second time in this year’s tournament as they try and retain their fifth place from Ontario four years ago.
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