Germany wins big points against Latvia

11 May 2013 | Dennis Mende

Thanks to another great performance of their goalie Rob Zepp - who earned his second consecutive shutout - Germany were able to get rid of all relegation fears. Latvia need at least one win to avoid the last spot.

The situation was the same for both teams before the match. Depending on the result it could have gone either way for them between qualifying for the quarterfinals or being relegated. Instead of being nervous though they started with a lot of offense and had multiple scoring chances already in the first minutes. Latvia was especially dangerous during their power play. At 10:08 and 10:11 the Germans received two minor penalties between three seconds - both for tripping against Felix Schütz and Patrick Hager - and faced themselved a 5 on 3 power play for Latvia but not only did they keep the puck away from their net but also did they force a penalty against Martins Cipulis - also for tripping. In the last minutes of the period Rankel (for Germany) and Indrasis (for Latvia) failed in 1-on-1 opportunities.

At the start of the middle period both teams again had 1-on-1 opportunities but the goalies did a great job. At 28:05 though the Germans won a faceoff at the right circle and Philip Gogulla skated behind the net and gave a brilliant back hand pass to Christoph Ullmann whose one-timer from within the slot found its way into the back of the net! Germany had everything under controll until the rest of the period without gaining too big opportunities.

At 43:05 Patrick Hager doubled the German lead with a fast shot from within the slot that went directly under the crossbar. Especially in the last 10 minutes Latvia increased their efforts significantly but they failed to score even with best chances. In the last two minutes the Latvians became more and more aggressive due to the frustration of the loss and Martins Cipulis received a match penalty for an elbow to the head against Yannick Seidenberg! In the end Rob Zepp kept his net clean and with 26 saves he gained his second consecutive shutout of the tournament.

For Germany (5th with 7 pts) who still have to play against the USA and France now the quarterfinals have come very close. Latvia (8th with 3 pts) remain on the last spot and have to play against France and Finland.