Bronze for Sweden
The Germans got the early lead in the bronze medal game, but after carrying the play for some time, the Swedes finally tied the game halfway through the second. In the third period, it was all Sweden, as they skated to a 4-1 victory. It is Sweden´s third bronze medal in the last four U18 Women´s World Championships.
Referees: Gageová (CAN) - Cerhitová (SVK), Štefková (CZE). Attendance: 310.
Photogallery
Game report
Spielberger and Delarbre entered the game with seven points each, while no other German player had more than two. Albl, meanwhile, caused some attention with her 74-save performance in the group stage against Canada; a game where they trailed only 2-0 after two periods. She was also the main reason for her team´s quarterfinal victory against the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
After a disappointing fifth-place finish at home last year, the Swedes entered the game eager to reclaim the bronze medal that they had won the three years previous.
In the first period, Sweden outshot Germany 10-7 and had the best opportunities to score, but trailed 1-0 on Spielberger’s goal at the 4:40 mark. Marie Delarbre found the sniper with a nice pass and Spielberger beat Jessica Hjorth with a hard wrist shot to the top corner.
As Sweden continued to hold the edge in play but continued to trail, the worry began to set in that all of their missed opportunities might cost them in the end. Finally, though, just past the game’s halfway mark, the Swedes finally got a break when Elin Johansson pounced on her own rebound and backhanded the puck past Albl for the tying goal. The Swedish bench erupted and Johansson was mobbed by her elated teammates, with a huge monkey off their backs.
The game remained into the third period, and many of the people on hand at PSG Arena started speculating about the possibility of overtime. That’s not a gamble that Sweden wanted to take, though, and after some good puck movement on a power play in the 47th minute, Michelle Lowenhielm, parked on the doorstep, scored on a rebound and touched off a celebration at the Swedish bench that outdid the one on the tying goal. With five points in the tournament, Lowenhielm was the scorer on a Swedish team that had a balanced attack; eight players had at least two points.
The Germans weren´t ready to roll over and die just yet, though, and Spielberger had a couple of more chances that Hjorth had to be sharp on; one of them a wraparound attempt that sat on the goal line behind Hjorth´s right pad beside the post for a few seconds without any players in the viscinity knowing where it was.
When Delarbre was called for tripping with 8:05 on the clock, the Swedish power play went to work again, and on a wild scramble in front of the net, Matildah Andersson was the last player to touch the puck on the goal to give Sweden a 3-1 lead and give the team and its vocal fans in the building a chance to breathe a little easier.
From that point, Germany had one more decent chance, but it came with about a minute to go, and needing two goals to tie it, and when that chance failed it seemed a Swedish victory was imminent. With just 21 seconds to go, Isabell Palm put the game on ice with an empty-net goal, and as the final horn sounded on Sweden´s 4-1 victory, the Swedes stormed over the boards and mobbed Hjorth.
Reactions
Henrik Cedergren (couch of Sweden): „We had some trouble in the beginning, but after the first period we had a talk in the locker room. After that we played like we planed. Germans worked really hard. When we gave them just a little bit, they take it all. We are more organised in our game, we passed the puck better, we have more skilled players. They are closing the gap, so maybe next time it would be even harder for us to win.“Enter the world of the quickly growing family of the company Bet-at-home and experience the joy of winning right from the comfort of your own house.
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Best defenseman of the tournament: Erin Ambrose (Canada)
Best ofenseman of the tournament: Alex Carpenter (USA)