The German ice hockey women started the Olympic tournament on Thursday (February 5th, 2026). There was a setback at the start. Germany lost against Sweden 1:4 (1:1, 0:1, 0:1).
The German team was under constant Swedish pressure from the start, but was able to celebrate the first goal of the Olympic tournament after just over eight minutes. Katarina Jobst-Smith scored in the first power play situation and scored the first goal for the German women’s national team at the Olympic Games in almost twelve years.
But Sweden, which won silver in Turin in 2006 and is the only nation alongside the USA and Canada to make it to an Olympic women’s ice hockey final, struck back in the first third. Lina Ljungblom equalized in the twelfth minute.
Katarina Jobst-Smith celebrates after her goal with goalkeeper Sandra Abstreiter.
Sweden remains in control
In the second period, Jeff MacLeod’s team was able to make the game a little more even, but then conceded the second goal when they were outnumbered. Once again it was Ljungblom who was best at a rebound and reacted quickest (28′). The German women only created a few chances.
Selina Haider missed the best of them when she couldn’t get the puck past the Swedish goalkeeper on a counterattack (33′). 40 seconds before the third break, the Swedes increased the lead to 3-1 with one more player on the ice. This time Mira Jungaker was successful. The balance of power did not change in the final third either. The Scandinavians dominated the action on the ice and finally made it 4-1 through Thea Johansson (52nd).
Next opponents: Japan, France and Italy
In addition to Sweden, Germany will also face Japan in Group B (Saturday, February 7th, from 12:10 p.m. in the live stream), France (Monday, February 9th, from 4:40 p.m. in the live stream) and finally the hosts from Italy (Tuesday, February 10th, from 4:40 p.m. in the live stream). The MacLeod team has to overcome two teams in order to qualify for the knockout round.
