Women’ s Final Olympic Qualification Group D Tournament – Page 2

Women’ s Final Olympic Qualification Group D Tournament For 2022 Winter Olympics

by Adam Steiss 11 NOV 2021

With just three games to earn a historic milestone and reach the Olympics for the first time ever, Austria’s women’s national team seized the moment and kicked off the Women’s Final Olympic Qualification Group D tournament with a massive 3-0 upset of Germany.

Theresa Schafzahl scored short-handed in the first period and Anja Trummer added a pair of goals in the second and third period to give Austria a big three points in their opening game in Fussen.

“The team really made it easy for me to be in net,” said goaltender Selma Luggins who made 20 saves and earned the shutout despite Austria taking eight penalties in the game. “We’re really happy with the end result but we know we have two more games left so we are concentrating on that.”

Germany came into the game as the highest-ranked team in the group, and playing on home ice was looking to cement that status with an opening-day win over their southern Alpine neighbours.

“I think we were prepared for our game plan, we tried to follow it and it really worked for us” said Austrian forward Janine Weber.

Austria didn’t do itself any favours early on, taking two consecutive penalties that kept them from mustering any attacking pressure on the German net. But midway through the first the Austrians started to get a few odd-man rushes to keep German goalie Sandra Arbstreiter on her toes.

Then with the Germans on their third straight power play, the puck ricocheted off the boards and past forward Laura Kluge in the Austrian zone, allowing Theresa Schafzahl to take off with teammate Anna Meixner with no one in front of them but the German goalie. Schafzahl slotted the puck home on a give-and-go from Meixner to put the Austrians up 1-0 going into the second period.

Penalty trouble continued for Austria in the second frame, but the Austrian penalty kill effectively shut down Germany’s attack and kept its forwards outside penned along the boards and unable to get any clear scoring opportunities.

“Too many penalties, that’s definitely something we need to improve in the next games,” said Austria head coach Jari Risku.

“Power play opportunities, we missed a lot of them and we weren’t able to put enough pressure on the Austrian goalie and weon offence weren’t dangerous enough even on 5-on-5,” said Germany head coach Thomas Schadler.

Germany’s best chance to equalize came at 9:15 of the second period when a German shot from the high slot trickled between Austrian goalie Selma Luggin’s pads and was about to cross the goal line when it was stopped by the blade of defender Charlotte Wittich and cleared from danger.

Then the momentum swung to Austria as the Germans took consecutive penalties, the first leading to a penalty shot that was stopped by Arbstrieter. But on the second Austrian forward Anja Trummer got off a shot on Arbstrieter from the middle of the right circle that the Germany goalie was unable to freeze, leading to a rebound from Janine Weber that went through to give Austria a 2-0 lead with five minutes to go in the frame.

In the third period, the Austrian defence held the fort and kept Germany off the scoresheet while Trummer added her second of the game to seal the victory.

Both team now get a day off before resuming play on Saturday, with Austria facing Denmark and Germany taking on Italy.

Women’ s Final Olympic Qualification Group D Tournament For 2022 Winter Olympics

by Adam Steiss 11 NOV 2021

After it’s men’s team achieved its first-ever Olympic berth last August, Denmark’s women’s’ national team is hoping to join them in Beijing. The Danish women got off their campaign on the right foot with a 4-0 shutout of Team Italy in the Women’s Final Olympic Qualification Group D tournament.

Captain Josefine Jakobsen led the way with a pair of goals and goalie Cassandra Repstock-Romme pitched a 19-save shutout for Denmark, which has never qualified for the Olympics and this year played in the top-level Women’s Worlds for the first time in 29 years.

“I think we did a good job, but there are some things I think we can continue to develop on,” said defender Amalie Andersen. “But obviously we did good sicne we were able to shut them down.”

The Danes opened the tournament with a flourish, getting pucks in front of the Italian net and forcing goaltender Elisa Biondi to make some big stops early. At the other end, Italy’s forwards had difficulty generating any rushes past the bigger Danish defenders.

The deadlock was broken near the two-minute mark of the first thanks to a great individual effort from Jakobsen, who took the puck alone into the Italian zone from center ice, maneuvered herself into shooting position between three defenders before firing a wristshot stick-side past Biondi for the 1-0 lead.

The second period saw more of the same from the Danish defence as it continued to shut down the middle of the ice and prevent Italy from getting any pucks close to goaltender Cassandra Repstock-Romme.

Then Jakobsen would strike again, after a shot from teammate Josefine Perssons sailed wide but rebounded back onto the captain’s stick. Jakobson was at the side of the net and didn’t have an angle on the shot but cleverly fired a backhand that ricocheted off Biondi’s helmet and into the back of the net. Persson would add one of her own with a minute to go for the 3-0 lead going into the final frame.

Faced with near-constant offensive pressure, the exhausted Italians gave up another score in the third period to seal a 4-0 victory for Denmark.

“Our captain stepped up for us and that’s what we need in this tournament,” said forward Michele Weis, who scored the final Danish goal.

With just two more games left to earn points for a chance to qualify for the Olympic Games Italy will take on tournament hosts Germany in a must-win game on Saturday. Denmark will also have a massive matchup against the Austrians, who also came away with three points after upsetting the Germans 3-0 on Day 1.