Third group game for the German national team at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia: On Tuesday evening the opponent was DEB-Selection France. After two World Cup victories at the start, they wanted to DEB-Selection achieved the next success, while the French, who were still without a win, were hoping for their first victory in Group A. Ultimately it should DEB-Selection extend their winning streak - the German team celebrated a 4:1 (1:0, 2:1, 1:0) win against their country's neighbors.
As expected, national coach Toni Söderholm made some changes to the squad. Philipp Grubauer received his first World Cup appearance in goal. Jonas Müller replaced Benedikt Schopper in defense and Marc Michaelis replaced Lean Bergmann in attack.
At first the game was open with equal shares of play for both teams. But by half of the first period at the latest, the German national team had created the better scoring opportunities with nice combinations. On the other hand, the outnumbered unit once again did an excellent job in two power play situations for the French. Just when the German team was complete again after the second penalty, Moritz Seider (18th) took the lead for Germany with his second goal of the tournament.
In the second period, the French initially equalized through Damien Fleury (25th). A few minutes later, goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer had to leave the ice with muscle problems, a precautionary measure. Backup Niklas Treutle took over for him. In the 34th minute of the game, she scored DEB-Selection took the lead again through Matthias Plachta, shortly before the break Leon Draisaitl (38th) was able to extend the lead.
The French team applied pressure again in the final period and forced German goalie Niklas Treutle to make several saves. Afterwards she could DEB-Selection did not use the fourth goal for almost two minutes in a double majority. Shortly before the end, the French threw everything forward again and took their goalkeeper Florian Hardy off the ice in favor of an additional field player. But Korbinian Holzer decided the game with an empty net goal 58 seconds before the end.
With three wins that is DEB-Selection last started a World Cup in 2011 - in this case too, the host country was Slovakia. Tomorrow, that nation will be the next opponent from 20.15:20.10 p.m. The game against Slovakia will be broadcast live on SPORT1 from XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.
Toni Söderholm, national coach: “We were woken up in the first two changes. Overall, we can be very satisfied with our performance over 60 minutes because we improved in the game and played very well in the offensive zone, especially in the second third. The goalkeeper change during the game was of course a surprise, but Niklas did a very good job. Everyone has contributed their part to today’s success.”
Gerrit Fauser: “We had to put up a lot of resistance in the first third, as the French played very well. In the second third we were able to disrupt and stop the opponent's game. From that point on we controlled the game, took advantage of our chances to score and kept our lead well over time.”
Dominik Kahun: "France worked hard and made life difficult for us. We had already expected this before the game based on our analysis and knew that we would have to hold our own. Unfortunately, we did not take advantage of the two-man advantage despite having good chances. Ultimately, however, we scored the goals we needed and are happy with the victory!"
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE!