Finland survives German scare

04 May 2013 | Fredrik Pålsson

Germany showed that they want to be in the playoff race forcing Finland to a late goal to take the game overtime.

Finland survived the opening game against Germany with a scare. Tying the game with less than two minutes left to play moving on to win the game in overtime. Finland outshot Germany 38-18 but still needed overtime to win 4-3.

Finland took the lead twice by Kontiola and Pesonen by germany came back and tied it by goals from Schütz and Ehrhoff. Christian Ehrhoff's power play marker was scored early in the third, a period that would be dramatic.

With just 3:05 left of regulation Germany took the lead for the first time when Torsten Ankert's low slapshot found the net. With just three minutes left to play things were precarious for Finland but with just 1:29 Finland tied the game when Petri Kontiola scored his second goal of the game to take the game to overtime.

In the overtime Finland only needed 1:58 to score the game winner with Veli-Matti Savinainen deflecting a shot from Salminen to make the arena explode in celebrations of relief.

Despite losing in overtime a good start to a German team that had a terrible tournament last year being totally thrashed by Norway for example. "Losing the three points late like that is tough, but hopefully we'll feel a little better about the one point tomorrow," said one of the German goal scorers Christian Ehrhoff.