The women's national team lost to Finland 3:2017 (0:8; 0:3; 0:5) in the game for third place at the 0 IIHF Women's Ice Hockey World Championship in Plymouth (USA) and ended the tournament in fourth place.
Historic game for the German women's national ice hockey team. She fought at the World Championships in Plymouth DEBselection competed for a medal for the first time in history. Their opponents in the match for third place were Finland, who had lost the semi-final against Canada the day before, while the Germans lost to the host USA.
The German and Finnish teams knew each other quite well from numerous tournaments, but the last success of the DEB-Selection was from 2008. At that time the Germans won 3-2 in Savolinna. The last meeting at a World Cup was in Ottawa in 2013, when the Germans narrowly lost 0-1 in the quarter-finals.
As in the game against the Americans, the German women fell behind very early on. Jenny Harß was able to prevent the attempt at a pawn trick in the German goal and clamped the puck on the post, but a second Finnish striker reacted quickest and poked the puck under the goalkeeper into the German goal - 53 seconds had only been played. Germany didn't let themselves be disturbed, continued to work with concentration and stood up well defensively. Four minutes before the end of the first third it was 0-2 from a German perspective, which was almost a mirror image of the first Finnish goal. The Finns poked at the right post again until the puck was over the line. And things got even worse for the black, red and gold colors. When a Scandinavian woman was sitting in the penalty box, the Finns surprised the German builder and checked with two players despite being outnumbered. The Finns, playing entirely in blue, took advantage of the resulting loss of targets behind the German goal to make it 0-3 (18th minute).
In the second section, women's national coach Benjamin Hinterstocker brought Ivonne Schröder instead of Jenny Harß in the German goal. But the Finns immediately followed up. With a German defender sitting in the penalty box, it only took 14 seconds until the captain of the Northern Europeans, Jenni Hiirikoski, was able to make it 0-4 with a hidden slap shot from the blue line (22nd). The strains of the last two and a half weeks and the seventh game in just ten days were now clearly visible to the German women. Finland continued to press and increased the lead to 0-6 with a brace midway through the game. The German women were only rarely able to provide relief in this phase; the pressure from the opponent remained too great. Any loss of a target in their own third was punished coldly, as was the case when the score was 0:7 two minutes later. 18 seconds before the second break, the German women had to swallow the 0:8 after a lost face-off.
The Germans had their best phase at the beginning of the final third, when a Finn had to go to the penalty box for the second time. Laura Kluge, Manuela Anwander and Kerstin Spielberger failed because of a strong Noora Räty in the Finnish goal. In general, the German team showed character and continued to work hard. She managed to keep the match even and finish the last 20 minutes goalless. So the final score remained 0:8.
Women's national coach Benjamin Hinterstocker: “We can look back on a successful World Cup tournament. We worked hard for fourth place and this shows the team's steady development over the last few years. The victories against Sweden, the Czech Republic and Russia were very positive. Now it’s important to continue making the right decisions in the future in order to prepare the women’s national team effectively for the tasks ahead.”
team manager Peter Gemsjäger: “Due to the change in the format of the Top Division tournament, we have not faced one of the top teams in the World Group at a World Cup for many years. Against the USA, for example, only three of our field players had any experience and that was nine years ago. This young team will certainly learn and grow from the experiences of this World Cup. USA Hockey organized a great tournament here with a perfect organization, for which we would like to thank you very much.”
Rebecca Graeve: “It was a very unfortunate start for us and it took us forty minutes to find our game. But we are all proud of fourth place here in Plymouth. Despite the two defeats in the finals, we can look to the future positively.”
Julia Zorn, team captain: “We missed the start and unfortunately only played a good last third. The bottom line is that we cannot be satisfied with this. With a little distance, however, the positive will outweigh the negatives. Reaching fourth place as a newcomer to the top division after missing the Olympic qualification in February is quite remarkable and that makes us look to the future with confidence. Unfortunately, this fourth place won’t earn us a place at the 2018 Olympics.”
Nina Kamenik: “Overall, we played a great tournament with a great team performance. In the game for third place it didn’t work out as we had hoped, but we paved a good path for the future.”
World Cup debutant Franziska Albl: “I was very nervous in my first World Cup game. It was something completely different to a normal international match and I had to come to terms with that first. But it was a very important experience that will help me in the future."
You can find detailed statistics here: http://www.worldwomen2017.com