Third game – third win! The U18 women's national team has so far successfully fought its way through the 2023 IIHF U18 Women's Ice Hockey World Championship Division I in Ritten (Italy).
Already in the first World Cup game, the U18 women's national team impressed with a unified team performance. The team led by U18 national coach Franziska Busch won their opening game against Norway 3-1. After an initial scan and a somewhat cautious start, Charlott Schaffrath gave the German team a 1-1 lead shortly before the end of the first third.
The German team dominated in the second half of the game and Anna Rose increased it to 2-0 before the DEB-Selection had to concede the only goal of the game. Three and a half minutes before the end of the second period, Riley del Monte scored the third goal of the day. In the final part of the game, both teams were unable to score any more goals despite two outnumbered situations. Thanks to a confident, collective performance, our U18 women's national team ultimately deservedly won their opening game against Norway.
Franziska Busch, U18 national coach on the first World Cup game: “We didn’t know what to expect in the first game against Norway. But then we accepted the game very well and noticed that what we had trained was working. As a result, we gradually gained control of the game and were able to dominate the game more and more. With our first win of the tournament under our belt and the feeling that we scored three goals, we are going into the game against Hungary with confidence.”
As a result, the German team started their second game against Hungary with a lot of positive energy and self-confidence. At the beginning, the team was outnumbered three times in a row and also had to accept an unfortunate goal. Despite being behind, the team was able to play the game better and better and equalize through Lucy Klein two minutes before the end of the first third.
In the second half of the game, two penalties had to be overcome before Leni Schmidt took the lead in the 36:20 minute. Less than two minutes later, Hanna Weichenhain increased the score to 3:1. With a compact team performance and good defensive work, the German team didn't allow any more hits and played the game confidently over time. “The girls stuck to the game plan and the guidelines really well. I never had the feeling that we were behind. It was only a matter of time before the equalizer came and we took control of the game. Like in the first game, we scored three goals again and deserved to win again thanks to a unified team performance,” said Franziska Busch, reflecting on her team’s second victory in the tournament.
In the hard-fought game against Austria, our U18 women's national team once again confirmed the impression they had gained from the first two games. The team acted as a strong unit. The fact that there were no goals in the first half of the game can be attributed to the strong goalkeeping performances on both sides. It was in the second half of the game DEB-Selection not up and was rewarded with the 1-0 lead by Anastasia Gruss. We went into the final break with the deserved lead. Despite the narrow lead, both teams kept the game open with many good chances. But the German team continued to act very unitedly in the final third, defended very well and once again rewarded themselves for their performance with the winning goal shortly before the end. Emmi-Lee Hanack made it 2-0 with a counterattack.
Christian Künast, DEBSports director said after the match against Austria: "It was a close, good game from both teams from the start. Our U18 women's national team impressed with its solid team performance in this game too. Three wins in a row - the whole team can be proud of themselves."
On Friday our U18 women's team will meet the World Cup hosts from Italy. It starts at 13:00 p.m.! Click here and join us LIVE: https://tinyurl.com/mpfbamdx