IIHF – Shutout win for Germany

Germany won its second game at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship 3-0 over France on Sunday night at the CAA Center, bettering its first-round win at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship last August. This game was a must-win for France if they wanted to keep their hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals alive.

“It feels really good,” Germany’s Franziska Feldmeier said of collecting another win. “I think we recognized that in the first few games [our game is] better in a way and also that our mindset is better than in August. I think we can take that into the second game as well. I think now in the third game against France we couldn’t take the speed of the last two games to our current game. But our goalkeeper did a good job and then actually the win is all that matters, so we’re happy about that.”

Nicola Eisenschmid almost opened the scoring in the first period, sneaking behind the French defense with the game still in Germany’s end and receiving a pass at center ice for a breakaway. Margaux Mameri, playing her first full Women’s World Cup match online (she started against Finland earlier in this tournament but was pulled in the second set) made the save but was overtaken by Germany moments later. Germany’s top scorer Celina Haider pounced on a power play set up by Carina Strobel and Feldmeier and sent a low shot down the ice past Mamer.

They added to their lead further in the first 30 seconds of the second period as Feldmeier watched Mamer as Eisenschmid’s shot sailed past him and into the net.

“I feel like we need to pay more attention to the details,” said Eisenschmid, who despite the win still sees improvement. “For example, in this game we tried too hard and sometimes it gave them an edge in the rush. Next time we have to do the simple things better like quick passes, go to open areas of the ice, do better on the power play.”

France were not without scoring opportunities of their own. Captain Lore Baudrit made a break very similar to Eisenschmid earlier in the game and was at the forefront of several chances along with Estelle Duvin. France drew two penalties in the second period, but were not effective on the power play. 2-0 in the third period.

“It’s hard to win a game when we can’t score goals,” said France’s Betty Jouanny, referring to the close-range shots: 26 for Germany, 28 for France. “It was the same against Hungary. We are very disappointed because now we know it is over for us. But there is one last game and we want to win at least one game of this championship, so we are going to give 100% But it is very disappointing, because we had a chance to score and it just didn’t want to go in.”

The two teams continued to exchange shots throughout the third period with Germany’s Sandra Abstreiter standing between the pipes and Mameri making several fantastic saves for France, even as Nina Jobst-Smith scored Germany’s second power play goal of the game to make it 3 goals. -0.

“It was an emotional game because we knew France had to win,” Eisenschmid said. “But it was also important for us to win because we have one more important game against Hungary.”

Les Bleues played 1:23 of a 5-3 in the German zone to close out the game, but were unable to score before the final buzzer, giving Abstreiter her first Women’s World Championship.