They met on the third matchday of Group B DEB-Women faced newly promoted Sweden in the Scanel Hockey Arena in Frederikshavn, but lost 3:4 after a penalty shootout after a strong performance. The hits for them DEBNina Christof, Nicola Eisenschmid and Tanja Eisenschmid were selected. The best player on the German side was Nicola Eisenschmid, the goalscorer for the interim 2:3. On Monday afternoon, the German team led by women's national coach Thomas Schädler will face the selection from the Czech Republic in the third group game (15:30 p.m. / MAGENTA SPORT).
In the second World Cup match of the German women's national team, the Scandinavians from Sweden got off to a slightly better start. Right from the start, the team of head coach Ulf Lundberg put a lot of pressure on Sandra Abstreiter's goal. As the first few minutes of the match progressed, the DEBHowever, the selection around women's national coach Thomas Schädler got better and better into the game and there was clearly more movement in the offensive. After the German national player Sonja Weidenfelder drew the first penalty in this encounter with a cross check in the 13th minute, they saved DEB-Women kept a cool head and stood compactly in their own zone. With a goal shooting ratio of 9 to 7 from the Swedes' perspective, both teams said goodbye to the first break.
There were also chances on both sides in the second third, which remained unused for a long time until the 33rd minute despite Swedish and German power plays. Due to Lina Ljungblom's first goal when she was in the majority, German goalkeeper Sandra Abstreiter was forced to reach behind herself for the first time. And it shouldn't get any quieter in front of the German goal area. Just three minutes later, Hanna Olsson (36th) increased again for the Scandinavians. The DEB-Women then worked out another opportunity to overpay, which unfortunately remained unused.
Back from the last break, the German team initially had some difficulty gaining possession of the puck. In the 46th minute, the German women's national team had their first dangerous chance of the period, through Lilly Welcke, who narrowly missed the crossbar with the puck. The Swedes then extended their lead again through Anna Kjellbin (47th), when the puck deflected upwards and hit Sandra Abstreiter's shoulder into the goal. The German women's national team fought back, and it was striker Nina Christof who gave Germany a sigh of relief in the 53rd minute. Thanks to the preparatory work of Tanja Eisenschmid, who brought the puck to the boards behind the Swedish goal, Christof was able to use the rebound to score the German women's national team's first goal of the game. In the now much more aggressive final minutes of the game, Swedish attacker Lina Ljungblom checked German player Katharina Jobst-Smith improperly from behind into the boards and had to leave the ice early with a 5 + 20 minute match penalty. The now strengthened team took advantage of this opportunity. DEB-Women and scored the second goal. Laura Kluge pulled the puck away from the face-off in the Swedish zone and gave Nicola Eisenschmid (57th) the opportunity to score. 43 seconds before the end, the German side cheered again. Tanja Eisenschmid (60th) equalized shortly before the end of regular time and took Germany into extra time.
The German team pushed strongly offensively into the Swedish zone in overtime, but was unable to score the goal they had hoped for. So it was Sandra Abstreiter again who parried a solo effort by the Swede Maja Nylen Persson and the DEB- kept women confident in the game. The winner should now be determined in a penalty shootout. The goals from Hanna Olsson and Mira Jungaker then secured victory for the Swedes in this game.
Women’s national coach Thomas Schädler: “It's great that we got a point after being behind. I don't think anyone expected that after the 0-3 defeat. We said in the second third break that we would continue on our path and not give up. That was exactly the key. Our numerical superiority game worked really well. Of course it's a shame that we lost the second point. The girls really fought hard and performed well. We can be proud of that too. That’s exactly what we have to confirm again on Monday against the Czechs.”
Striker Nicola Eisenschmid: "We played relatively passively at the beginning, we retreated a bit, but in the end we clearly took advantage of our chances. Of course we also had the advantage of playing with a man advantage for five minutes and applying a lot of pressure. Luck was simply on our side and we were able to leave the game with at least one point."