Oppenheimer, Germany slide past Kazakhstan

The Germans entered the game with the role as slight favorites. The Kazakhs, coming off promotion from the Division IA, wouldn't agree. Both teams had their chances, the Kazakhs showed openly their problems in the defensive part of the game. They were leaving a lot of space open in the middle for the opposing side, but despite were first on the boards.

Kevin Dallman fired a blast from the blueline, Andrei Gavrilin was alone in the middle, forgotten by the defense and deflected the puck in past Rob Zepp facing the net with his back.

The Germans were eager to get back and continued to push hard. Shots were 16-4 in favor of the Germans in the first period, and their powerplay was impressive, creating chances from all positions. A minute prior to the end of the period, at 18:49 Matthias Plachta went into the zone over the blueline, fired a blast off the line, Yeremeyev was on the puck but it sneaked through the five-hole and crawled to the back of the net.

In the second period the score remained tied, but the game wasn't deprived of action. Midway through the action the Kazakhs hit the post twice in the same offnense, the German goalie can only thank the steelwork for saving him. Roman Starchenko later on had a break 2-on-1, managed to deke out the defenseman, but couldn't put the backhander in the back of the net. Instead, it slid just to the right of the post.

Team Germany again had a fair amount of shots more than their counterpart (11-4), but couldn't capitalize on any.

Much the same was the action in the third period. Still scoreless, which took the game to overtime. Germans were more concrete offensive-wise, while the Kazakhs were looking to get the breaks and try to score. Kazakhstan started off strong, they had two powerful shots inside the first minute, before Oppenheimer took matters in his own and and fired a big slapper towards Yeremeyev, the puck squeezed through his pad again and sat loose behing, but the Germans couldn't capitalize.

In overtime, first Akdag had a shot from wide, Yeremeyev deflected the puck and seeked for the whistle as the puck had hit him in the helmet, though the referees didn't share his opinion. So Yeremeyev took his helmet off to force the stoppage, though that didn't draw any penalties.

Later on, Nikolai Antropov deflected a shot off Roman Starchenko right off Zepp, the goalie couldn't see through traffic, but somehow covered the puck.

In the shootout, Alexander Barta and Thomas Oppenheimer scored for the Germans to lift them over and earn the second point. Dmitry Upper was the lone scorer for Kazakhstan.

Vitali Yeremeyev was named team Kazakhstan's best player, well expected as he recorded 46 saves on 47 shots, while on the other side Leon Draisatl, the youngest player in the game, earned the honors for Germany.

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