Round one to Norway

Norway scored as many goals in the second period against Germany as they had done in the entire tournament before. The three goals were more than enough to beat a weak German team. Norwegian goalie Joachim Svendsen made 29 saves to earn the shutout that got him the Best Norwegian Player of the Game award.

"It was a great result for us. We feel good", says the Norwegian captain Erlend Lesund to Eurohockey. "We brought our game from the Switzerland game over to this game. And obviously this was an easier team to play than Sweden, Russia or Finland".

"We did a pretty good game today I think", says Andreas Klavestad who scored the third Norwegian goal. "We played tight defensively. Got a lot of  power-play and finally we got it in".

Germany came to the game with the best self confidence after an impressing 3-0 win over Czech Repulic in their last game and also started this game best but this time it wasn't the first line that had the best opportunities. It was the second line with Sven Ziegler, Maximilian Kammerer and Vladislav Filin. The German dominance only lasted for a few minutes, then it was mostly about Norway.

The first Norwegian power-play was quite poor and Germany's Sven Zigler had the best scoring chance at a breakaway. The second time with a man advantage wasn't better.

Norway got to play three times on the powerplay during the first period but still only managed to fire five shots on target.

The Norwegian attacks were powerless until two minutes remained of the first period. Then they actually were really close to get the lead a couple of time and forced Germany to take a third penalty. Before the buzzer Germany was allowed yet another shorthanded breakaway but Joachim Svendsen kept the first period scoreless.

It was all decided in the second period. At five minutes Norway got a fifth chance to play with one man more on the ice and this time they only needed nine seconds to open the scoring. Martin Rønnild picked up a rebound and buried it.

A minute later Norway got goal number two. Simen Nielsen took a chance pass behind his back and it found Didrik Svendsen who scored from three metres.

German captain Leon Draisaitl had a great chance to get his time in the scoring sheet in the middle of the period on a breakaway, but Svendsen denied him.

At 30:23 Germany finally got its first power-play when Norwegian captain Erlend Lesund got called for interference. Germany started with a lot of pressure against the net but then Norway got a counter-attack and Draisaitl had to take a penalty to stop them. He did it in a dirty way and got a game misconduct penalty for a high stick. Markus Søberg lost a few teeth as the German captain got his second major penalty of the tournament.

"I tried to lift his stick and accidentally hit his face", said Draisaitl after the game.

Norway used the five minutes well. Andreas Klavestad beat Cupper with a well placed high shot for 3-0.

Martin Rønnild was closed to his second goal in the 44th minute but his long shot hit the left post.

In the third period the Germans looked like they already had resigned. There were better bids for 4-0 than for 3-1, but the game ended 3-0 and we got to hear the Norwegian anthem for the first time of this championship.

"We just have to get our minds set on the game tomorrow. Remember that's a new rink, a new game and everything", says Lesund.

The relegation games are played in a best-of-three series. Game two is played tomorrow in Malmö Isstadion. If Germany wins, there will be a third game on Sunday. If Norway wins, Germany face relegation.

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