Germany 5, Norway 2
The Germans earned their first win of the tournament with a really solid team victory on Saturday. Five different players scored and three additional players earned assists as Germany came out strong and did not let up, even as the second period got bogged down in penalties. Norway looked good for stretches of this game, but were also undisciplined and maybe a bit tired, leading to some sloppiness.
After being on their heels against Sweden in their opening game, Germany was able to focus more on their strengths and play their style. They moved the puck well and were patient, not trying to force things. That allowed them to posess the puck and set up camp in the zone and also forced Norway to spend alot of time chasing them. Germany looked good on the breakout and hit a number of really nice passes through the neutral zone.
Celine Hader opened the scoring by holding the puck and moving around the perimeter until she found her seam, eventually picking her spot and firing top shelf to make it 1-0 Germany about seven minutes in. Near the end of the frame, Franziska Feldmeier scored on a wraparound to double the lead to 2-0.
But Norway wasn't ready for the break just yet as Mathea Fischer took a breakaway in and beat Sandra Abstreiter to make it a 2-1 game with a minute left before intermission.
A strange play at the beginning of the second saw Ena Nystrøm trying to avoid Feldmeier as she was taken down and skidded into the net. Unfortunately, Jule Schiefer's shot followed closely behind Feldmeier and after a review, the refs called it a good goal, giving Germany a 3-1 lead.
A whole bunch of penalties kept things from every really settling in during the middle frame. Just after killing a penalty, Andrea Dalen scored a beauty of a goal to cut the lead to 3-2. It was assumed she'd lead this Norway team but she has really showed out so far and it has been really cool to see her get to experience leading her team at this level and score goals like this one.
Unfortunately, the sloppiness kept giving Germany extra-attacker opportunities and Nina Jobst-Smith capitalized with just 16 seconds left in the second, shooting from a tight angle on the goal line and banking it in off the goalie to extend Germany's lead. Lilli Welcke scored a short-hander on an empty net in the third to close out the win for the Germans.
Norway will face Hungary Sunday morning at 5 A.M. Eastern. Germany will play the Hungarians Monday at 5 A.M. Eastern.
Finland 4, Czechia 2
This is probably the surprise of the tournament so far as Czechia just could not seem to put things all together while Finland, who had a rough go facing the US and Canada on the first two days of the tournament, looked unbothered by those losses and ready to gun for some points in front of a hostile crowd.
I'm not sure there's any one thing that Czechia did or didn't do, but the end result was a sloppy game where they couldn't bury their chances, couldn't do much to slow down Finland once they picked it up in the second and couldn't figure out how to stop things as they got away from them.
The Czechs have been at their best on the power play and that's how they opened the scoring as Tereza Vanišová unleashed a shot from the point that deflected in to make it 1-0. But that was about the best look they'd get on Sanni Ahola for much of the rest of the game.
Finland as a whole and Ahola in specific had a rough game against the US to start the tournament and then she didn't dress for the game against Canada. She had a few days to sit with that and she came out in this game showing the kind of shutdown netminding she's become known for. She got a lot more help from the defense, as well and the team built on that and seemed to find momentum and confidence even as they were down a goal.
The Finns were fairly passive in their first two games, seeming to hunker down and away what the US and Canada would bring. That started to change on Saturday and they really put on pressure out of the intermission. They fully flipped the game when they scored two goals three minutes apart midway through the second. First Elli Suoranta scored her first World Championship goal with a beauty of a seeing eye shot from near the blue line that cleared traffic and snuck near post to tie the game 1-1. A short time later Klára Peslarová made a save on Ida Kuoppala, but Ronja Savolainen put back the rebound to give Finland the 2-1 lead.
In the third, it as Savolainen's shot that generated the rebound and Julia Schalin cleaned it up to make it 3-1 and a few minutes later, Elisa Holopainen took advantage of a rebound and deflection to extend the lead.
As the clock wound down, Czechia was ready to pull their goalie, but they could not control the puck and cleanly exit the zone. When they did get Peslarová off the ice during a power play, they were able to capitalize, utilizing the very effective slap shot of Kalty Kaltounková to cut into the lead and make it 4-2, but Czechia ran out of time to get it any closer and Finland took their first win of the tournament.
The Czechs will look to regroup and find some of the defense that worked for them against USA as they get a day off before facing Canada on Monday at 1 P.M. Eastern. Finland will play Switzerland Monday at 9 A.M. Eastern.
Coming up on Sunday, April 13
- 5:00 AM Eastern – Hungary vs. Norway (Group B) (NHL Network, TSN3)
- 9:00 AM Eastern – Japan vs. Sweden (Group B) (NHL Network, TSN3)
- 1:00 PM Eastern – Canada vs. USA (Group A) (NHL Network, TSN3)
(Photo: IIHF)