In the last minute of overtime, Müller scored a remarkable goal to make the final score 3-2, which secured Switzerland fifth place.
“We knew Germany would come out tough. You played an outstanding tournament. But we fought for every puck today and were able to get a big win,” Stalder said on the official IIHF website. “We had a lot of new faces, young girls who were playing against the best teams in the world for the first time. Every game was a valuable experience.”
The Germans were one of the big surprises at this tournament, so they can head home with their heads held high.
“We left everything we had on the ice,” said DEB captain Daria Geisser. “It was a good tournament for us, it’s going in the right direction. I am proud of our team. We never gave up and gave everything in every change.”
Germany: Outstanding goalkeepers pave the way to group victory
The DEB selection had previously been able to surprise by winning the group in season B: The German women won all four games against Denmark (5:1), Japan (4:1), Sweden (1:0) and China (3:0 ) and finished the preliminary round sensationally without losing any points with 13:2 goals.
Due to the somewhat complicated composition of the quarter-finals – all five teams in Group A qualified, in Group B only the first three teams, while the last two were relegated – Germany had to deal with the Czech Republic. Bitter: Only one goal made the difference between the semi-final and the game for 5th place, as the Czech Republic narrowly won 1-0.
What remains is the realization that the Germans have outstanding goalkeepers: starter Sandra Abstreiter, who catches for Ottawa in the newly founded PWHL, delighted everyone with a goals against average of 1.19, a catch rate of 95 percent and a shutout. Backup Lisa Hemmerle (ERC Ingolstadt) also scored a shutout against China (nine saves).
As predicted by those responsible in advance and typical for German national teams, coach Jeff MacLeod’s team came through primarily through team spirit: Germany had nine (!) different goal scorers and 14 players with multiple scorer points. The scorer ranking was led by Laura Kluge (ECDC Memmingen, 2-3-5), Anna Nix (ERC Ingolstadt, 3-1-4) and Lilli Welcke (Boston University, 1-3-4).
The penalty killing of the DEB selection was also noticeably strong with a convincing success rate of 94.7 percent (18/19). In general, Germany has the second-best defense in this tournament with only six goals conceded in six games and two shutouts.
Switzerland: Difficult start before the happy ending
Switzerland had a difficult time in the prominent Group A: After foreseeable defeats without a goal of their own against hosts USA (0:4) and favorites Canada (0:3), the Swiss also lost against Finland (2:5) and the Czech Republic (1 :6) and ended up in last place without winning any points.
In the quarter-finals against penultimate Finland, the Finns prevailed again (3:1). Up until the game for fifth place, the Swiss had lost every game. “We had our backs against the wall,” said Stalder, who was supposed to achieve a happy ending with her team.
2024-04-13 20:24:38
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