Twins and a wall in goal: Germany's women reach the ice hockey worlds quarterfinals

Two sisters scored, one goalie stopped almost everything: Germany's women are into the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship in Denmark. On Tuesday afternoon they beat Czechia 2:1 after a penalty shootout.

It was tight to the very end. And it was exactly the kind of game this team had been working towards.

What happened?

Lilli Welcke put Germany ahead after just two minutes. Czechia answered in the 11th minute through Linda Vocetkova, and it stayed 1:1 after the first period.

The third period was the hard part. Germany had to survive two penalty-kill spells, when they played a player short, and goalie Sandra Abstreiter made several big saves to keep the team in it. In overtime Czechia pushed hard, while Germany barely got out of their own end and held on to reach the shootout.

Twins and a goalie

In the shootout, only the 24-year-old Welcke twins, Lilli and Luisa, scored for Germany. That was enough, because Abstreiter stopped six of Czechia's seven attempts.

"We're super proud of the two points," Lilli Welcke said. "You could tell that every single one of us wanted to win." She also said the team is growing into the tournament, with clear progress since the first two games.

Head coach Jeff MacLeod said he was "incredibly proud". The team had worked towards a moment like this for a long time, he said, and had talked a lot about what it takes to beat a side like Czechia.

What's next?

Germany now have five points from three games, with two wins. That puts them second in Group A, behind defending champion USA with nine. The top four teams in the group go through to the quarterfinals, so Germany are already in.

The last group game is against Switzerland on Wednesday at 3 p.m. German time. The quarterfinal opponents come from Group B, which Canada, the record world champion, dominates. The fourth-placed team from Germany's group will face the Canadians, and Germany should avoid them in the first knockout round.