USA advances to gold medal game after defeating Germany
Friday’s first semifinal brought no surprise as the U.S. girls have secured their position in the gold medal game. They controlled the puck for most of the time and 79 saves by Janina Fuchs kept the score respectable for the German team.
Referees: Hirvonenová - Majapurová, Schipper - Poetrayová. Attendance: 260.
Photogallery
Game report
After the no much expected win over the Czech Republic German headcoach decided to rotate goalies. And she did right. Janina Fuchs became star of the game. Her hard work began in the very beginning of the game when U.S. girls exerted a great pressure on German defense. Fuchs resisted until the 5th minute when Kate Flug deflected Burke’s shot. After it German girls killed a penalty in which they faced to many shots. In fact the first serious German attack came in the 12th minute and it resulted in a tying goal. Kerstin Spielberger scored her third goal in two days.
The most intensive moment of the game came after a minute and half. Carpenter’s goal deflected from the net as quick as the referee couldn’t see it and that’s why she didn’t stop the game. Germans kept on playing and didn’t take their breakaway chance, so another American counterattack came and the puck went in again. After minutes of discussion with the linesmen the referee approoved the previous one by Alex Carpenter. So instead of tying up again German girls were loosing by one goal. Before the first intermission Haley Skarupa add another one, so it was 3:1.
American domination continued until the end of the game. In the second period German prospects faced it bravely and they allowed only Maryanne Kennedy-Meneffe to increase lead of her team. Considering quality of their opponent loosing by three was still a satisfying result for Germany. They kept it until the 51st minute. Fatigue and momentky lack of concentration of German goalie helped the Americans to raise their lead by another three goals, thanks to Kennedy-Menefee, Haley Skarupa and Flug. U.S. girls achieved an expected victory but the Germans didn’t have to feel shame.
Reactions
Heather Linstad (headcoach of Team USA): „Today it was overall a very good team effort, we worked hard and I liked the chemistry in our team. We made also some mistakes. We dropped too many pucks in the middle zone and gave transition opportunities. In the gold medal game we must avoid that because we will be playing against team that can capitalize on these mistakes.“
Maritta Becker (headcoach of Team Germany): „We’ve been expecting such a game. We knew that the Americans are excellent skaters with perfect stickhandling and shooting and that they may be even better than than the Canadians. Considering the fact our goalie was facing 86 shots receiving seven goals is not so bad. We managed to score and that should raise ouf confidence before tomorrow’s bronze medal game.“
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Best defenseman of the tournament: Erin Ambrose (Canada)
Best ofenseman of the tournament: Alex Carpenter (USA)