Danes score early, defend late to beat Slovaks 5-3

Team Denmark scored the game´s first five goals in the first 27 minutes to take a commanding lead, but then were sent reeling as the Slovaks answered with three goals in five minutes. They then held on over the last 27 minutes to win 5-3. Michelle Weiss scored 2 goals, while Marie Henriksen and Josefine Jakobsen had 2 assists each. Petra Jurcova and Martina Velickova had 2 points each for Team Slovakia.

Wednesday´s encounter between Denmark and Slovakia was actually like three distinct games. The first lasted for the first 27 minutes, when the Danes built up a 5-0 lead and looked like they would skate the Slovaks out of the rink. The second lasted for the rest of the second period, when the Slovaks suddenly reversed the momentum and got themselves back into the game. The third was the third period, where the Danes regained their composure and wisely protected their lead to a 5-3 victory.

The first period was all Denmark. In fact, there were more Danish goals, four, than there were Slovakian shots, three. The worst of it came in the first 10:39, when they scored three goals to chase starting goaltender Romana Kiapesova from the game.

First it was Josefine Persson with her fifth goal of the tournament, who jumped on a loose puck in the Slovak zone just shy of the four-minute mark and fired a shot betwen Kiapesova´s legs. Less than four minutes later, more Danish pressure produced another turnover at the Slovakian blueline, and Josefine Asperup skated in on Kiapesova and beat her to the blocker side. The third goal came on the power play, with Kiapersova stopping the first shot, but had no chance on Malen Frandsen rebound.

At that point, Jana Budajova took over in the Slovakian goal, and the team´s regular starter seemed to be a steadying influence on her team. Denmark did get one more goal in the first period. Lisa Jensen wasn´t tested much in the Danish net in the opening 20 minutes, but she did have to make a big pad save off Viktoria Ihnatova with just over a minute to go. The Danes were then quick on the counterattack, with Marie Henriksen making a nice move and feeding Michelle Weiss to make it 4-0 at the first intermission.

The assault continued into the second period as the Slovaks ran into penalty trouble, and the score could have gotten much worse if not for Budajova in goal. With a two-player advantage, though, Henriksen and Weiss hooked up again and it was 5-0 just past the 26-minute mark.

Still on the power play, Denmark pressed for more, but against the flow of play Martina Velickova got a shorthanded breakaway. Jensen stopped her first shot but she got her own rebound back and scored to put the Slovaks on the board. At least it wouldn´t be a shutout. Then 24 seconds later, another Slovak breakaway and another goal – this time Petra Jurcova – and the momentum of the game was shifting.

Denmark then got a penalty for too many players on the ice, and a long shot from Barbara Kezmarska hit the goalpost. And then with the teams playing four-on-four, the Slovaks got a strange one when Velickova´s shot from the boards was re-directed in mid-air by Jurcova for her second of the game and, with still almost half a game to play, the score was 5-3.

For the rest of the second period, it was the Slovaks who were brimming with confidence and the Danes who were panicking – and parading to the penalty box. Only some good penalty killing and a bit of luck – another goalpost – kept them in the lead after two periods.

Slovakia entered the third period in a very different state of mind than they started the second – with the momentum and a two-player advantage on the ice. Denmark killed them off effectively, however, and a game that was played at a frantic pace for two periods calmed down considerably. No longer concerned about running up the score, but rather just with winning the hockey game, the Danes played solid team defence over the final 20 minutes and preserved the 5-3 victory.

With 5 points, the Danes are in the middle of the group, and it looks likely that they will remain in Group A next year. Slovakia, however, is still pointless, and is eyeing Saturday´s encounter with Austria as a crucial game that they will have to win to keep their position.