Germans win to even relegation series with Norway 1-1

03 Jan 2014 | Derek O’Brien

After losing the first game of this best-of-three relegation series on Thursday, Germany was in a must-win situation this game. With Norway leading 3-2 entering the third period, the Germans scored twice to earn a 4-3 win and force a decisive game on Sunday.

Hailing this as their best crop of juniors in a long time -- and even better to come next year -- the Germans had hopes of making the quarterfinals of this tournament, so the situation they found themselves in after two periods on Friday was nearly disastrous.

"We hadn't been playing a bad game to that point, so we told our boys to stay calm and try to play our game and we would get our chances," said German head coach Ernst Hofner.

In fact, the first period was certainly not bad, as they outshot the Norewgians 19-10 and led 2-1. Jorgen Katerud opened the scoring for Norway in the fourth minute, but Sven Ziegler tied it 1:53 later and then Leon Draisaitl finally scored his first goal of the tournament to give them the lead -- snapping a perfect shot over the glove of goaltender Joachim Svendsen. Draisaitl would later score the game-winning goal.

"From the very beginning, he was really in the game today," Hofner said of Draisaitl, who had only 2 assists to this point and had been ejected from two games. "We said to him before the game, 'Hey buddy, you haven't played much to this point so you have to step up now and help your team,' and he did."

The second period belonged to Norway, though, as they scored twice to take the lead. First Simen Nielsen fired a perfect shot off the post and in to tie the score, and then they got a five-minute power play after Lukas Laub checked Norwegian captain Erlend Lesund awkwardly into the boards. Tim Robin Johnsgard capitalised with 5:12 to go in the middle frame.

"We knew we hadn't played our best hockey to to that point," said captain Markus Eisenschmid. "I don't just mean today, but the whole tournament and especially in the first game against Norway.

"I don't know if we thought it was going to be easier, but we knew with one period to go, if we didn't bring our best now, we'd be finished."

It was Eisenschmid who scored the tying goal, finishing the play after Patick Klopper had caused a turnover at the blueline.

"Well I'd had a chance earlier on a three-on-two and I missed, but this time Klopper made a nice play and I hit the net this time and then Draisaitl scored another big one right after that," said the Medicine Hat Tiger.

Just over a minute later, it was another Norwegian turnover that led to Draisaitl's winning goal, beating Svendsen with another rocket over the glove.

"Of course he's a good player, but the problem was more the mistakes we made. We game him the chances," Leslund said of Draisaitl, in reference to the fact that his team had shut out Norway in game one of the series. "We have to improve our power play, our penalty killing and play better as a team on Sunday."