The women's national team started the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship with a victory. The team of women's national coach Christian Künast won on Thursday against the Swedish selection 2:1 (0:0, 1:1, 0:0, 0:0, 1:0) after a penalty shootout.
The Swedish team created the better chances to score in the first period, but repeatedly despaired of the German goalkeeper Jennifer Harß. This was checked several times in the first ten minutes. On the other hand, women's national coach Christian Künast's team created a few scoring opportunities, but these were mostly blocked by the Swedish defenders. Marie Delarbre had the best German opportunity to score with her shot in the 13th minute in the power play - but the puck ended up on the goalkeeper's pad. Two minutes before the end, German defender Rebecca Graeve blocked a shot by a Swedish offensive player - a short time later the crossbar saved the German team.
The Swedes also set more offensive accents in the second third - but the players did not take advantage of their chances consistently. The Scandinavians took a total of 13 shots at Jennifer Harß's goal. However, after three shots in a row, the German goalkeeper was powerless in the 30th minute. Sofia Engstrom scored to give Sweden the lead. Shortly afterwards they had another good chance to score through Sabina Kuller to extend the result, but Harß prevented the second goal with her saver. On the other hand, Emily Nix left the DEB-Selection cheer! She deflected a shot from Daria Gleißner into the goal and equalized in the 35th minute. Then the team of women's national coach Christian Künast became more and more courageous and had another good opportunity to score thanks to Nicola Eisenschmid, among others.
Less than 120 seconds had been played in the final period when Julia Zorn only slightly missed the ball after a 2 on 1 situation. The German national players left further scoring opportunities unused when they had their own double majority. At the end of the third the Swedes started again, but were unable to score the winning goal. In extra time, the Swedish selection continued to combine in the opponent's third - but despaired of Jennifer Harß in the German goal. It was also the one who didn't allow a goal in the penalty shootout that followed. Laura Kluge converted her penalty and gave the German team their opening victory at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship.
Christian Künast, women’s national coach: “We showed a very good fighting performance over the entire distance. We played with a lot of passion and will. From the 30th minute onwards we also improved our play and were closer to what we can and want to play. I’m happy for the entire team about this great success at the start of the World Cup.”
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE.