The day kicked off splendidly for team Germany to the tune of a resounding victory over Slovakia in which the head coach Jeff MacLeod saw his team put on a 6-1 showing in front of a good 2,570 spectators in Bremerhaven. They say you should never change a winning team and that’s exactly how MacLeod went about his business, going with the exact line-up as in Thursday’s 3-0 victory over Austria.
“I think the intensity and sacrifice of every single one of our players today made the big difference,” explained coach MacLeod. “We’re extremely happy about how our team went about its business in today’s game and how it’s simply improved in the days since we’ve been here. The process is moving in exactly the right direction. We put in a 60-minute performance. That’s exactly what we’ll be expecting of ourselves in tomorrow’s game against the Hungarians.“
It didn’t take long for a heavily cheered for Germany to get on the scoreboard, with Franzsiska Feldmeier winning an offensive zone face-off and immediately swiping the puck over to Jule Schiefer, who immediately diverted the puck into the net at 1:25 of the first period. Not even two minutes later, at the 3:19 mark, Lara Kluge cleanly won an offensive zone faceoff back to the point where defender Charlott Schaffrath immediately sent the puck to the net and over goaltender Andrea Risianova, who was making her second consecutive start.
Things didn’t get any better for Slovakia when Germany used the tail end of a power play to gain a 3-0 lead when Svenja Voigt tipped in a Ronja Hark slapshot from the right face-off circle. The goal fell at 5:48 of the first and ended up being the last of the period.
If you thought Slovakia would use the second period to mount a fiercer attack, you’d have been wrong. The team tightened up in the second period but didn’t manage to get one shot on goal. Furthermore, it took 3 more penalties and had to swallow goal number 4 for Germany when once again Voigt tipped the puck in the net at 8.24 of the period, this time after Carina Strobel had already tipped a Luisa Welcke slapshot.
Slovakia came out of the gates in the third period clearly ready to give it another push and were successful in beating German goaltender Sandra Abstreiter for the first time in the tournament when captain Janka Hlinkova, who had scored the team’s only goal against Hungary, redirected a Lucia Haluskova shot-pass from the right point at 3:13 of the period. Alas, this would prove to be too little too late as Feldmeier scored at the 10:14 mark and then Lilli Welcke added a sixth tally at the 12:27 mark of the 3rd period.
With this 6-1 loss, Slovakia’s Olympic possibilities are now off the table and Germany heads into the final gameday at the top of the standings. For the second straight day, Abstreiter collected 18 saves in the victory, 10 of which came in the third period alone.
”The decisive factor today was that we capitalized on our chances at the beginning of the game. That helped us gain the momentum right from the beginning,” stated forward Feldmeier, the author of the team’s fifth goal and the player whose sly and astute assist on the first goal got the day off on the right track. “This is why we deserved this victory. As a team, we definitely loaded up on confidence today heading into tomorrow’s final contest. Having the fans behind us like that was just incredible and gave us so much support. We’ll use that as a building block for tomorrow as well.“
The second game of the day saw two teams knowing that neither could really afford to lose a point, especially team Austria. And the Austrians showed up with great determination. After a number of chances and few shots on goal for both teams, an incredible lifter of a pass from assistant captain Antonia Matzka from one blueline to the other sent star and captain Anna Meixner in on a partial breakaway. It was one she wouldn’t miss, putting the puck between the legs of Hungarian starter Selma Luggin, who nonetheless got a piece of the shot before it went in.
Taking place at 18:39 in the period, it gave Austria the mental advantage heading into the second.
Hungary would however get things going in the second frame and got on the board at 3:15 of the second with a power play goal by Emma Kreizs, who pounced on a rebound of a Fanni Gasparic shot from the left face-off circle. Roughly 7 minutes later at 10:36, defender Lotti Odnoga jumped on a turnover in the neutral zone and made her way straight to the net. Slightly hooked from behind as she tried to make a move, the puck nonetheless slid between goaltender Aniko Nemeth’s legs, giving Hungary the lead.
But just about one minute later, at 11:39 of the period, Austrian defender Emma Mortl threw a shot on goal from the point and it made its way in, paving the way to a third period in which the two countries traded several top-flight chances, although Hungary definitely took over the pace of the game and led the shot count 13-4.
The contest would require overtime and eventually give viewers what might have been the loveliest goal thus far, when 15-year-old Reka Hiezl was given a 3-on-3 pass near the offensive blueline by Franciska Kiss-Simon and proceeded to deke her way past two defenders and then the Austrian goaltender as well.
With that, the Hungarian victory was sealed, even if it meant leaving a point on the table.
“We obviously had a lot of pressure on us because we won yesterday and because we knew Austria was a really good team,” stated Hungarian forward Zsofia Pazmandi. “We wanted to leave everything on the ice but at the end it was kind of like a deja vu moment because we had experienced an overtime at the worlds, but this time it ended in our favor.”
After two days of game play, it all comes down to the final game tomorrow evening at 6 pm. Austria and Slovakia, who will play tomorrow at 2:30 pm, are officially out. Now host Germany (6 points) will face Hungary (5 points) in what, for each, will be a good old-fashioned do-or-die contest.
And we can hardly wait!