Led by Philipp Grubauer’s 35 saves, Germany knocked off Slovakia 6-4 in a back-and-forth contest that kept fans on both sides engaged right to the last minute.
Grubauer’s best stop of the game – certainly a game saver – came midway through the third period with Slovakia on a powerplay. Under immense Slovak pressure, Grubauer made one save and then had to quickly prepare for a rebound with the puck landing on the stick of Slovak captain Tomas Tatar. The sniper was wide open in the slot for a Grade A chance that, somehow, Grubauer gobbled up.
Minutes earlier, Slovakia appeared to cut into the German two-goal lead when Marek Hrivik scored his second power play goal of the game on a shot in close on Grubauer. The play was challenged by Germany for offside and, after the referees reviewed the play, the call on the ice was overturned and it was ruled no goal, keeping the Germans ahead by two.
Slovakia did made it close with less than six minutes to play when Juraj Slafkovsky drove the net and backhanded a pass to Libor Hudacek, who fired it in to make it 4-3 with plenty of time left. However, with four minutes to play, Germany regained its two-goal lead as Leonhard Pfoderl swept in a pass from Yasin Ehliz and the Germans wouldn’t relinquish the lead from there. Tobias Eder added an empty-net goal with 1:05 to play.
Slovakia didn’t quit, though, something that will keep head coach Craig Ramsay happy. Matus Sukel scored with 15 seconds left to perhaps give the Slovaks some momentum heading into their second game.
Following a scoreless first period, Dominik Kahun got the scoring started at 9:46 of the second on a German 5-on-3 powerplay, when he jammed in a puck from the paint on a goal mouth scramble. Slovakia goaltender Stanislav Skorvanek made the initial save on an Ehliz one-timer but couldn’t stop Kahun in close.
Germany took a 2-0 lead less than three minutes later on another power play, this time on a goal by Jonas Muller who snuck in from the point and beat Skorvanek with a hard wrist shot.
Just when it appeared the Germans were in control, though, Slovakia struck back with two goals in two minutes. First, Marek Hrivik beat Grubauer from his left when the German goaltender was down and out after making two excellent saves moments earlier.
Then, Martin Pospisil made a nice backhand pass at the blueline to Martin…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Rss News…