The women's national team lost the first game of the Euro Women's Hockey Tour. The team of women's national coach Christian Künast lost to hosts Russia 0:5 (0:0, 0:2, 0:3).
The German team played well from the start. Sarah Kubiczek had the best attacking chance to date in the fifth minute. However, her shot past the defender was still too imprecise. After that, the Russians built up more and more pressure, but the German defense worked well and had reliable support in Jenny Harss. She saved confidently against the free-standing Olga Sosina. Kerstin Spielberger had the chance to take the German lead in the power play shortly before the end of the first third, but her shot just missed the opponent's goal and so the first break went goalless.
Three minutes had been played in the middle period when the hosts took the lead 0-1 through Yekaterina Lebedeva. Emily Nix had the chance to equalize just a few attacks later, but was denied by Valeryia Merkusheva in the Russian goal. With the advantage, the Russian team increased the lead to 0-2 a few minutes later - Yelena Provorova took advantage of a confusing situation in the German goal area. The Russians still had more chances until the second half-time siren, but Jenny Harss kept her team in the game.
Five minutes had been played in the final third, when Marie Delarbre and Emily Nix had the best chances to score, but they were unable to put the puck into the Russian goal. In the 48th minute of the game, Yekaterina Dobrodeyeva took advantage of a follow-up shot to increase Russia's lead to 0-3. The Russians then restricted the German team at times in the defensive third. Eight and a half minutes before the end, Valeriya Pavlova scored to make it 0-4 for Russia. A German penalty two minutes before the end brought the final score to 0:5 for the hosts.
Christian Künast, women’s national coach: “We held up well in the first third. Towards the end of the game, however, we no longer implemented the guidelines and conceded the corresponding goals. Individual tactical errors were responsible for this. Unfortunately, we weren't able to build up enough pressure going forward and weren't able to take advantage of our few chances. Tomorrow we will further deepen the tactical specifications so that we can call them up over a period of sixty minutes.”
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE.