Germany beat Slovakia to boost ice hockey quarter-final hopes

Germany beat Slovakia 5-1 in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday to pick up their first win of the ice hockey world championships and boost their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. Patrick Hager, Patrick Reimer, Dominik Kahun and Philip Gogulla all grabbed a goal and an assist to lift Germany up to fifth in Group B, just one point behind fourth-placed France with four games to go. The Germans haven't made the quarter-finals since 2011, but are well in the mix for a last-eight place in Russia with the top four from each of the two groups progressing. Slovakia, who had won both of their previous matches, went into the lead through Peter Cehlarik in the opening period. But Germany replied through Cologne Sharks forwards Hager and Gogulla, along with Nuremberg winger Reimer, to move two goals in front. Brooks Macek and Kahun added gloss in the third to complete Germany's well-deserved win and banish the memory of their 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Finland on Sunday. "It was a big game today," Germany head coach Marco Sturm said. "We had to respond from the last game. Moving forward, it was a huge win for us. "I think that we played solid hockey in the run of all 60 minutes and won deservedly tonight." In the late Group B game a hat-trick by Sacha Treille set France on their way to a confident 6-2 win over promoted Hungary. Nicolas Ritz, Treille and Damien Fleury all scored for France in the first period, while skipper Marton Vas was on target for Hungary. Florian Chakiachvili made it 4-1 to France in the second. Istvan Sofron narrowed France's lead in the third, before Treille added two more to complete his hat-trick. Meanwhile, in the early match in Group A, Switzerland battled back from two goals down to beat Denmark 3-2 courtesy of a sudden-death goal by Eric Blum in Moscow. Switzerland went into the game without a win, but outshot the Danes 16-8 in the opening period, only for goalie Sebastian Dahm to deny all of their efforts. Meanwhile, forwards Frederik Storm and Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets both scored on powerplays to give Denmark the advantage before the first intermission. But Switzerland levelled in the third period with goals by Yannick Weber and Minnesota Wild winger Nino Niederreiter. Blum scored the winning goal in overtime, firing into the top right-hand corner with a powerful slap shot. "Obviously for us it was a huge win after two defeats in the overtime and shootout," Swiss manager Patrick Fiscer said. "It was a very tough game. Glad my players found the way to turn around to come back like we did in our previous two games. Obviously we wanted to win all three points but we could hardly get two." Later in Moscow, Norway beat Kazakhstan 4-2 to go into fourth in Group A.