It was the Germans' first
victory over Russia at the worlds.
German goalie Dennis Endras
had 31 saves in Bratislava's Orange Arena to help the Germans avenge a 2-1 loss
to Russia at the semis of last year's worlds, which they hosted.
Greilinger netted the first
goal with a wrist shot at 4:19 of the second period and Reimer added the
unassisted second on a breakaway with 2:07 remaining in the third to seal the
victory.
Russia, the most successful
team in worlds history with 25 trophies, mounted pressure toward the end of the
game, outshooting Germany 12-5 in the final period but forward Ilya Kovalchuk,
Alexander Radulov and Vladimir Tarasenko failed to convert their chances.
In the other game, underdog
France held Switzerland to a goalless draw before Julien Vauclair collected the
puck from Ivo Ruthemann to score the decisive goal on a solo effort 1:46 into
sudden death overtime.
“I like those kinds of play,”
Vauclair said. “I just took my chance, ran over and scored.” France looked better
for the first two periods against Switzerland, which reached the quarterfinals
at the 2010 worlds.
“They really took charge, at
least for the first 40 minutes today,” Vauclair said. “Today, we can be happy
and have to thanks our goalie to give us a chance to win the game in overtime.”
Swiss goaltender Tobias Stephan stopped 29 shots for the shutout.
“We had a lot of chances,”
French coach Dave Henderson said.
“Sometimes we don't shoot
enough when we have chances.” The match had to be interrupted for several
minutes in the third period due to power blackout in Kosice's Steel Arena.
Olympic gold medalist Canada
faces Belarus in their opening game later Friday while host Slovakia plays
Slovenia.
