Germany writes history in the World Championship opener

One of the main favorites for the 2011 World Championship gold medals, Russia, suffered a tough loss in the opening game in Bratislava. Germany won 2-0 after goals by Thomas Greilinger and Patrick Reimer and also splendid goaltending by Dennis Endras.

Uwe Krupp’s Germans players played well all game. In the first period Germany out-shot Russia 12-8 and had a couple of great scoring chances.

At 9 minutes Andre Rankel was close to score when Nabokov was fumbling and a minute later Christoph Ullman also had a good opportunity but failed to score.

The German goals would come eventually. Thomas Greilinger scored 1-0 with a quick shot under Yevgeni Nabokov’s arm a few minutes into the second period. Patrick Reimer made it 2-0 on a break-away two minutes before the end of the game.

The frustrated Russian players couldn’t beat the German goalie Dennis Endras who made 31 saves today and was the key to the surprising German win.

 

Advanced player search

Tweets by @eurohockey