Germany beats USA in play-off drama – 07.12.2016

Play-off contest in Riga started with a huge battle between Germany and USA. This was not the easiest match for Germans, nevertheless they won it 6-5 (2-1, 1-1, 3-3).

Germany finished 4th in Group A after two losses and tied the game against Estonia. Meanwhile USA defeated Thailand and Canada, that helped them to triumph in Group D. It was  very intensive play starting the first period. After some tries in the middle of the period, Alexander Burmeister stroke the ball into the net. The American team reacted quickly with Ryan Winkler´s goal. Later in the period, Germany outweighed their opponents and scored one more goal.

Following part of the game was completely controlled By the German side. Despite this fact, USA managed to equalize again when Germany earned a penalty. All started from the begining after Robin Brown´s power-play goal in the middle of the second period. The European team showed big offensive play in the second period and goalkeeper Terence Frank had a lot of action. Unfortunately for USA there was only 26 seconds left in the second period when Maximillian Falkenberger scored Germany´s third goal.

USA were able to come back in the third period. This mission became more difficult after Germany´s early goal. Few minutes later, Maximillian Falkenberger increased his team´s advantage to three goals. The Americans tried to survive with their third goal and good penalty-kill. When there was only 5 minutes to play Ryan Winkler and Robin Brown organized another one for Team USA. The American fairy tale continued just one minute later with match equalizer from Steffan Zimmermann. The match finished as a real thriller with Germany scoring the winning goal at 59:59. Germany goes through the quarterfinals where they will face Sweden. USA hopes for an Estonian win against Canada as this will keep their chances to qualify for the World Games in Wroclaw.