The women's national team lost its last international match before the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship (April 4-14, 2019 in Espoo, Finland). In the Federal Performance Center in Füssen, women's national coach Christian Künast's team lost 0-2 (0-1, 0-0, 0-1) against the French team on Saturday evening.
The German team started with two good scoring opportunities in the first minute: First, Andrea Lanzl served her strike partner Laura Kluge, who was standing free and could not put the puck in the goal. A little later, Julia Zorn tried from a tight angle. As a result, the DEB-Selection around offensive actions. The French only had their first compelling opportunity to score in the 15th minute through Léa Parment. However, the 22-year-old failed in the slot against German goalkeeper Jennifer Harß. On the other side, Anna Fiegert was close to Germany's opening goal with her shot from the blue line - but the puck didn't bounce off the post and into the net. The French had better luck with one of their scoring opportunities in the opening third: Estelle Duvin scored 52 seconds before the third buzzer to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
At the beginning of the middle section, Lore Baudrit ran freely towards Jennifer Harß, but was denied by the German goalkeeper (22'). Marie Delarbre and Kerstin Spielberger tried a combination on the other side a minute later, but were unable to score the German opening goal. As a result, both teams neutralized each other. Five minutes before the third break, women's national coach Christian Künast's team started a phase of pressure in which the national players established themselves in the French third again and again and created scoring opportunities. But with a 0-1 deficit, the German team went into the third break again. In the final period, Andrea Lanzl had the best opportunity to score on the German side. However, she shot the puck free-standing over the goal. The French struck again through Lara Escudero and - against the run of play - increased their lead to 2-0. In the final minute they had DEB-Selection by Carina Strobel and Nicola Eisenschmid once again had chances to score, but the disc ultimately didn't find its way into the goal for the hosts.
On Monday, the women's national team will travel to Espoo, Finland, and complete a few training sessions there before the DEB-Selection will face Sweden in the first World Cup game on April 4, 2019 from 11:30 a.m.
Christian Künast, women’s national coach: “It was a close game today. In the first third we showed a restless style of play on the ice. There was a clear increase in performance in the second and third thirds. We were better than the French, but we didn't take our chances consistently. The effort and the way the girls performed was absolutely fine. We now have another four days to prepare as best we can for the opening game against Sweden.”
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE.