Two goal performances from both Franziska Feldmeier and Celina Haider helped Germany to a 6-2 win over Sweden in their first game of the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

Sweden struck first, just 10 seconds after puck drop, with Germany giving away the puck to Hilda Svensson in front of the net. Svensson scored—her first Women’s Worlds goal on her first shift at her first senior Worlds. The 16-year-old winger emerged as a super talent earlier this year at the U18 Women’s Worlds, scoring four goals en route to a silver medal. She made her debut on Thursday in Brampton playing on Sweden's top line with Hanna Olsson and Lina Ljungblom.
 

"I love to play with her and I love to see how she’s not afraid to be here," Olsson said of Svensson. "She’s a really smart player and we think the same out there."

Germany spent over a quarter of the first period on the power play, generating a number of good opportunities during three Swedish penalties. With 28 seconds left in their third power play, Carina Strobel found an open Feldmeier, who scored from the top of the circle with a shot over the shoulder of Emma Soderberg.

The floodgates opened in the second period with four goals, three of which were scored in the span of 1:03.

Luisa Welcke—competing in Brampton without her twin sister Lilli, who departed the tournament prior to their opening game due to a lower body injury—slid past Sweden’s defence and over the blue line, dishing the puck to Laura Kluge. Unobstructed with a clear path to the net, Kluge scored to give Germany a 2-1 lead.

"I think it was just our game plan to prove ourselves, that we belong here. I think we proved that we can overcome those obstacles," Kluge said of coming back after Sweden's early goal. "At that point you don’t really have anything to lose anymore. I mean, you can start worse than that. You can only go uphill from there."

Less than a minute later, Theresa Wagner made a great pass across Soderberg's crease to Haider for a one-timer goal.

"I think Sweden wasn’t expecting what we were trying to do, but we worked on that all practice long," Kluge said of how her team slipped past Sweden's defence to generate opportunities throughout the 60 minutes. "It was kind of our game plan and we just tried to stick to it."

With Germany up 3-1, Swedish coach Ulf Lundberg called a timeout, which seemed to be just what his team needed—mere seconds later, Svensson skated a lap around Germany’s zone before shooting through traffic for her second goal of the game.

"We knew they have a really good goalie and good defence, so it was of course tough when we had to pressure them. When we had five-on-five I think we were better than them in the beginning," said Olsson. "It’s still a lot of games here and we still have the focus to take us to the quarter final."

Despite continued efforts from the Swedes to score a tying goal, Germany was able to regain their two goal lead with Svenja Voigt tipping in a Nina Jobst-Smith shot at 33:05.

The third period saw Haider combine with linemates Wagner and Bernadette Karpf yet again on her second goal of the game, slipping the puck past Soderberg to increase Germany's lead to 5-2.

Sweden pulled Soderberg with five minutes remaining, which lead to Germany sealing the deal with an empty net goal from Feldmeier.

"[This win is] really important because Sweden is a good team and we have Finland tomorrow so it’s good for us to go with a win going into the next game," said Haider. "We want to come to the quarterfinals. It was a good start and we always need those points. We have to take the energy into the next game."