Second game of the German national team at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia: 24 hours after the 3-1 opening win against Great Britain, the team scored DEB-Selection on Denmark, who beat France 5-4 after a penalty shootout in their first World Cup game. Ultimately, it was able to DEB-Selection prevailed with 2:1 (0:0, 2:0, 0:1) against the Danes.
National coach Toni Söderholm used the same line-up as the day before; in goal, Mathias Niederberger received his second appearance at this World Cup after his convincing performance against the British.
A balanced game developed in the first third. Lean Bergmann scored the supposed opening goal for Germany (7th). However, after a detailed video study, the referee refused to recognize the goal due to an alleged goalkeeper interference. The first section remained goalless.
In the second section, the German team continued to work patiently and with concentration. In the 30th minute of the game, Matthias Plachta took the deserved lead in the 4 against 3 power play. On the other side, the Danes had some very good chances to score, but Mathias Niederberger continued his strong performance from yesterday's game. Shortly before the break the increased DEB-Selection made it 2-0 by Frederik Tiffels (40th), who was able to overcome the Danish goalie Sebastian Dahm with a nice movement.
The German team started the final third with a great chance from Dominik Kahun, but the disc didn't find its way into the goal. As a result, however, goalie Mathias Niederberger took center stage on the other side. He prevented the goal from being conceded with several saves, but was then powerless against Mathias Bau from close range in the 51st minute. The Danes then invested a lot, but were unable to defeat the later “Man of the Match” Mathias Niederberger. This is how she celebrated DEB-Selection's second success in the second game of the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
The next World Cup game for the German national team will take place next Tuesday, May 14th, 2019. The goal will be at 20.15:XNUMX p.m DEB-Selection on France.
Toni Söderholm, national coach: “Every player was able to improve compared to the opening game. The outnumbered game was strong - the boys blocked a lot of shots. And the fighting performance was also very good today. I’m particularly happy for Mathias, who showed an outstanding performance.”
Matthias Plachta: “We wanted to play a better game today than yesterday. I think we succeeded. We did very well defensively. In the end, we kept the pressure on despite the score being close and secured the three points – that’s all that counts in the end.”
Mathias Niederberger: “We played compactly and well. The Danes have offensive qualities, which we defended well. Coming out of this close game with a win is incredibly important for the rest of the tournament. Now we can use the break tomorrow to attack again on Tuesday against France.”
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE!