Deutschland Cup, Day Two: an American comeback

The second day at the Deutschland Cup in Augsburg starts really well. The beautiful Curt-Frenzel-Stadion, one of the landmarks of ice hockey in Germany, is full of fans sporting their own teams' jerseys, including a noticeable contingent of Swiss and Slovak fans. The Cup is on display near the stands, while a lot of Germans crowd the fan shops to ask for autographs or to buy gadgets of the "Nationalmannschaft". As you may probably know, Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia are, indeed, among the heartlands of ice hockey in the country, so it's no wonder seeing so many fans coming from those areas.

The first game sees Team USA playing against Switzerland. Among the cheers "Hopp Schwiiz" of their fans, the Swiss start better, play better and are quite more disciplinated than their opponents. After a scoreless first period, the US scored first with Jim Slater (Servette), but were soon submerged by four goals by Cunti (ZSC Lions), Hofmann (HC Lugano), Martschini (EV Zug), and, again, Hofmann (this time on a penalty) respectively. With 17 minutes to go, then, Switzerland was leading 4-1. But then came the comeback, with Connelly (EC Salzburg), Hanowski (Augsburger Panther) and Wellman (Spartak Moscow) mercilessly scoring, forcing an overtime. There, despite the good efforts by Sandro Zurkirchen, Team USA scored the decisive goal with Chad Billins (Linköpings). 

After the break, here's Slovakia to face the home team. The Germans dominated the first two periods, scoring two goals during each of the fractions: Macek (Iserlohn Roosters), Ehliz (Ice Tigers Nürnberg), Kohl (ERC Ingolstadt) and Gogulla (Kölner Haie) were the scorers for Team Deutschland. The lack of discipline showed by this young Slovak team was another decisive factor that brought them to lose the game, despite the high level of the players in it: it is only in the last period that they woke up, scoring twice thanks to Martin Bakos (Liberec) and Martin Reway (Sparta Prague). With 13 Czech Extraliga and 8 KHL players in it, such a team is destined to show great things in the future, though...

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