Germany outclassed by Slovakia in must-win game

27 Dec 2013 | Henrik Lundqvist

Tired Germans didn't have a chance against Slovakia and now relegation games are close.

Slovakia entered the tournament in the best possible way - an impressive 9-2 win in the key game against Germany. Germany looked tired. They probably put too much effort in yesterday's game against Canada and had little energy left. They missed Parker Tuomie who was injured yesterday and with Jonas Noske, Kai Herpich and Lennart Palausch leaving today's game early they had to play the third period with only 15 skaters.

Slovakia had quite a few scoring chances in the first few minutes and eventually Germany had to take a penalty. Slovakia only needed 13 seconds of man advantage before captain Milan Kolena with a bit of luck could open the scoring.

Slovakia made it 2-0 when the German defence forgot Marek Dano who all alone in front of the net received a pass from Mario Luntner.The Slovak power-play was two for two in the first period as David Griger used his second chance to score from the left circle.

Germany also got a power-play opportunity in the first period but it wasn't nearly as good as the Slovak. It was actually Slovakia who had the best chance to score on a 2-on-1 breakaway. The first period was all about Slovakia who outshot the opponent 13-1.

Marko Dano scored his second goal in the opening of the second period after some aggresive Slovak fore-checking. Germany got on the scoring sheet at 22:38 when Leon Draisaitl tricked a couple of Slovaks and fed a pass to Dominik Kahun who scored his first goal of the tournament.

Also Milan Kolena got his second goal of the game in the second period when he scored on a long pass from the left corner.During a delayed call in the middle of the period Daniel Gachulinec took a shot from the blue-line for 6-1. After the sixth Slovak goal Germany switched goalies. Marvin Cüpper left the ice and Patrick Klein entered.

Kahun got on the scoring sheet for the second time of the day when he got Germany a little closer at six minutes of the last period. The German goal woke up Slovakia again. Martin Reway made it 7-2 when there once again were no German defenders in front of the net and 40 seconds later Mario Lunter easily made it 8-2.

Stanislav Horansky finished the scoring with a solo number for 9-2.