Vive la France!

Another big game for both teams as a loss would pretty much mean no quaterfinals for Team Denmark, but a French loss would not be as painful for Team France, but it would sure be a complication with just one game left in the preliminary round.

Both teams started out looking to open the scoring with France being the favorite in the game and it was Julien Desrosiers who found the back of the net to give his team the lead just a minute in after he one-timed the puck following a feed from captain Laurent Meunier. Simon Nielsen in the Danish net had no chance at all to stop the puck.

The Danes had chances too and not just one or two, but quite many. Cristobal Huet was great in net initially, but eventually a shot by Jesper B. Jensen found its way through thanks to a deflection by French defenseman Nicolas Besch. Huet could do nothing on that one to prevent the score from getting tied at one.

Who could do something after the Danish goal were the French players in front of Huet. And the top line took charge with less than a minute left in the opening period. Antoine Roussel received a pass and wasted no time, just ripped one past Nielsen and into the back of the net. Great shot by the native of Roubaix, a small town near the French-Belgian border.

The second period was all Denmark with their tournament on the line. They got pretty close to tying things up again early on, but Huet made all the saves necessary to protect the lead. Then, Jannik Hansen had to leave with a bloody injury and came back with a different jersey and a different number on his back (75) in a strange situation.

Game action in the Danish zone.
Photo: Roman Kucera

With five minutes left in the frame, the Danes managed to finally beat Huet when Kim Staal fired one hard from far out close to the blue line and it might have been deflected by Jesper Jensen on its way through, but that didn't matter as the score was tied anyways. 

In fact, if it wasn't for Huet, Team Denmark might have even had the lead going into the third, but it was the spectacular former NHLer who kept sure goals by Morten Green and later Morten Poulsen out of the net with great solid saves.

The third period started really fast-paced and both goalies had to make some good stops to keep the score tied. Initially, they did well at it, but the deadlock got broken eventually. And it was France in a big way.

Just about at the mid-point of the frame, Roussel got to the puck on the right circle and sent a cross-ice pass to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and he just one-timed it past Nielsen to give France the lead. Not even two minutes later and Roussel sent the puck to the front from behind the net and Stephane Da Costa was there to bury it and make it a two-goal lead.

About two minutes later, Roussel fought for the puck in the neutral zone and gave it on to Stephane Da Costa who carried it over the line and sent a rinkwide feed for Antonin Manavian who one-timed it past Nielsen to make it 5-2 France. And finally, two minutes after that, weird deflection after a shot by Bellemare sent the puck to Stephane Da Costa who scored his second of the night.

6-2 was the final score in what is a special day for French hockey. The team will advance to the quarterfinals after the huge third period and tomorrow's game with the Czech Republic will decide which of these two plays Russia in the next round.

"We're having a lot of fun out there. Some of us know each other for a long time and grew up together. Maybe some kids in France will choose to play hockey instead of soccer now", says NHL player Antoine Roussel.

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