Germany upsets USA, celebrates Deja-Vu

There was an omnipresent dream of a Deja-Vu in Cologne’s LanxessArena just before the game. Seven years ago the last World Championships in Germany had already started with a game between the USA and host Germany. Back then the game was supposed to make history. On the one hand for setting a new world record in attendance for a hockey game since the game was staged outdoors in football Bundesliga’s Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. On the other hand Germany won the game in overtime, which was the start to an unmatched World Championship run for the Germans, which only got stopped by Russia in the Semi Finals through a Pavel Datsyuk goal minutes away from overtime.

The co-host had to deal with some bad news just before the game, though, when it became clear that NHL veteran Christian Ehrhoff won’t be able to partake in the opening game. But with just 2 minutes into the game the spotlight was on another German NHLer. Thomas Greiss had to solve a one-on-one against Johnny Gaudreau and see a puck slide by against the goal post. Again and again the young US squad could turn the German zone into a prison for the home team early on.

Germany started to feel more comfortable after 10 minutes and immediately shocked the Americans when Patrick Reimer just flicked a shot to the outside of the net and Tobias Rieder converted the rebound in front of Jimmy Howard for a surprising 1-0 lead. A slashing penalty against Jacob Trouba gave Germany the chance to build on the lead, but nothing materialized.

On the other side Johnny Gaudreau set the next exclamation mark with a beautiful spin move giving him some space in front of the goal just to see Greiss rob him of the scoring chance.

The second period saw fast moving traffic in both directions. After 28 minutes Rieder broke through the middle and missed out on the chance to score his second of the game. Brooks Macek copied his attempt shortly after, while Calgary Flames star Gaudreau remained to be the hardest challenge for Germany’s defense, showcasing his whole technical skill set.

The line of Gaudreau and 20-year old superstar Jack Eichel also dominated the first US powerplay around the halftime mark, but thanks to an outstanding goalie Thomas Greiss Germany managed to survive. However, it shifted the game again in team USA’s favour. The longer the period continued the more the pressure increased. The horn to the second period was much appreciated by the German team as defender Moritz Müller confirmed it walking into the dressing room.

The final frame started with a powerplay for team USA as Matthias Plachta received an interference call with 2 seconds left in the second. Greiss used it to add a couple more saves to his record. The German fore-checking worked better now giving them a bit more air to breath and create more offense on their own again.

Nevertheless the US boys kept firing at Greiss and eventually at the 51:00 minute mark a shot from Arizona Coyotes defender Connor Murphy went through to beat the New York Islanders goalie on the 36^th shot. Seconds later the Americans started celebrating the go-ahead goal, but the game was whistled down just before the puck was lying on the line and so a video review wasn’t even necessary.

The dominance continued until Danny DeKeyser was sent off for tripping. And Germany was ice-cold. Patrick Hager from the home-town team Kölner Haie deflected a shot by Dennis Seidenberg right into the net and turned the game upside down. The regained 2-1 lead with 6 minutes to go put the arena into a frenzy.

Frederik Tiffels, the youngster from Western Michigan University, who turned a lot of heads in the preperation for the tournament, even had the chance to set the score to 3-1, but the goal post gave the US team the chance to pull goalie Howard and look for the equalizer. Without success. A 42-save perfomance by Thomas Greiss secured the 2-1 Deja-Vu-win for Germany, which will face another huge task tomorrow against Sweden while USA will take on Denmark on Sunday.

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