It was a battle of inches, and after Denmark’s Teresa Christensen had tied the game with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, the game between Japan and Denmark went to a shootout.
Denmark won the shootout 2-1, and with that, the game 3-2. Frederikke Foss scored the shootout winner as the final shooter.
Umeka Odaira scored twice for Japan, while Nikita Bergmann got Denmark’s other goal. Emma-Sofie Nordstrom made 29 saves for Denmark in regulation time.
“It’s unreal, it’s a historic moment, just unbelievable,” Nordstrom said. “We didn’t play our game in the first, and then worked our way back into the game. In overtime, we knew we could win.”
“We got into penalty trouble and lost our flow in the third, but I still believed in our team’s ability to win it in overtime,” Odaira said.
There wasn’t a person at the Kvik Arena in Herning who didn’t know what the game was going to look like. The Danish team knew it — it was their plan — and Team Japan knew it, as did all the fans in the stands.
Denmark would rely on their solid team defense and equally solid goaltender Nordstrom and capitalize on their chances.
Meanwhile, it was no secret that the Japanese play with a lot of speed and skill, and that stopping them would take a perfect game by the Danes.
Denmark started the game full of confidence and created several chances but couldn’t quite get to the front of the net.
Then came the cold shower.
Japan played the puck quickly out of their own zone and onto the stick of Umeka Odaira, who accelerated from Japan’s blueline, through the neutral zone, into the Danish zone and then all the way to within three meters of Nordstrom’s net before firing a quick wrister top shelf to give Japan the important 1-0 lead at 5:22.
The fleet-footed Japanese created havoc every time they entered Denmark’s zone, but the Danes battled; they blocked shots and even killed two penalties in the period.
With 6:07 remaining in the period, Japan scored again, and the goal was a mirror image of the first one. Again, right after a great Danish chance, a Japanese forward went from blueline to Danish net, but this time down the left wing, before slipping the puck through Nordstrom’s five-hole.
The move was different, but the player was the same: Odaira, with her second of the night.
Team Denmark got a dream start to the second period when Nikita Bergmann cut the deficit in half just 47 seconds in. It was Silke Glud who set the table with a nifty move at the blueline that opened up a lane to the slot. Masuhara made the initial save, but Bergmann took care of the rebound.
“There was no time to think, I just wanted to get off a good shot on goal,” said Glud, 30, who played her first national team games in 2013.
Denmark had a two-player advantage for 70 seconds early in the third period, but hitting the post twice was as close as they got.
Until Christensen struck.
She took a page out of Odaira’s playbook and went coast to coast from the Danish blueline, and her shot from the slot found its way to the back of the net through Masuhara’s five-hole to tie the game with 2:56 remaining in the period.
“I was definitely nervous before the shootout, but I reminded myself of a shootout against China which we won, so I thought things would turn out fine now, too,” said goaltender Nordstrom, who was beaten only once in the shootout.
And then Foss fired her snap shot through Masuhara’s five-hole and started the party. The crowd was chanting “Den-mark, Den-mark” long after the shootout was over.
“They really lifted us today, and I want to thank the fans from the bottom of my heart,” said Denmark captain Nicoline Jensen.
