Germany gives Russia a hard time

Russia was huge favorite in the WJC quarterfinal against Germany but the game turned out to be a really close one. Germany pulled the goalie Florian Bugl towards the end and had a few decent chances to tie the game at two but Russia got away with the win.

The first period was a bit nervous and only saw 11 shots on goal. Russia scored the only goal. When Germany got a powerplay it took Vasily Ponomarev only six seconds to score on a breakaway. The score was 1-0 for a long time but at 28:27 Russia got a second goal. Danil Bashkirov buried it from the hash marks.

The game dropped in intensity and pace after the second Russian goal but after Florian Elias got Germany on the scoring sheet it very much was alive again. Elias first lost the puck to a German player but immediately stole it back and scored the only German goal of the game on Yaroslav Askarov.

Russia, of course, was the better team. Especially penalty killing continued to work well. Germany played almost a perfect game even if Tim Stützle wasn't as dominant as in earlier games.

For Germany this was the last game of the championship and they must be very satisfied with their performance considering the corona situation where many players were unavailable the first couple of games and the team couldn't practice together before the tournament.

Russia is still in the fight for the medals.

09:06					1-0		V. Ponomarev (Chistyakov, Bardakov)
28:27					2-0		Danil Bashkirov (Afanasyev, Gritsyuk)
43:24					2-1		Florian Elias

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