German women defeat Czech Republic / Ivonne Schroeder best player
Still on track: With a 2:1 (0:0/1:0/1:1) win over the Czech Republic, the German selection also won its second preliminary round game at the 2017 IIHF Women's Ice Hockey World Championship in Plymouth (USA). Qualified early for the quarterfinals with six points.
National coach Benjamin Hinterstocker only changed the goalkeeper position compared to the previous day and brought in Ivonne Schröder instead of Jennifer Harß. The German women found it very difficult to get into the game against a powerful opponent and were hardly able to set their own tone at the beginning.
The second half went goalless and the Eastern Europeans picked up where they left off after the first twenty minutes. Andrea Lanzl had the first dangerous action (minute 25), but she was denied by Klara Peslarova in the Czech goal. Things got even more difficult when a penalty was called against the German team for the first time in the 27th minute, but Ivonne Schröder and her front men withstood the constant fire from the Czech team. Then use it DEB-Selection turned out a two-on-one situation ice-cold: Laura Kluge broke through on the left side and passed exactly to Julia Zorn, who was running along, who ice-coldly converted the ball over the Czech goalkeeper's stickhand side to give Germany a 1-0 lead (35th min ).
After the last break there was little change in the dominance of their opponents, but the German women continued to withstand the pressure with clever defensive play. In a confusing situation in front of the German goal, the Czechs were able to equalize. At first Ivonne Schröder parried strongly, but was then powerless to rebound. When everything looked like extra time came Laura Kluge's hour. There was a lot of activity in front of the Czech team's goal and the young striker poked the disc into the opponent's goal from the crowd 97 seconds before the end of regular time to make it 2-1. The Eastern Europeans took their time-out and then the goalkeeper came off the ice in favor of another field player. But the German team also finished the last few seconds with concentration and thus moved into the quarter-finals early.
The last game of the preliminary round will take place next April 03.04rd. at 18.00 p.m. German time against Switzerland.
Women's national coach Benjamin Hinterstocker: “Today's game is in no way comparable to yesterday's. We worked very effectively in the defensive zone for over 60 minutes today and were able to capitalize on two of our few chances to win the game. Our focus is now on Monday’s game against Switzerland.”
Goalkeeper Ivonne Schröder: “I am very happy about our game today, in which the entire team did an excellent defensive job and helped me a lot. After missing the Olympic qualification we were all pretty down, but here the team showed what they were made of.”
You can find detailed statistics here: http://www.worldwomen2017.com