Germany’s ice hockey men celebrated an opening victory in the warm-up for the Winter Olympics in Italy.
At the start of the Germany Cup, national coach Harold Kreis’ team beat Latvia 4-1 (2-1, 0-0, 2-0) after a strong performance.
In Landshut, in addition to making amends for missing out on overall victory last year, the players of the German Ice Hockey Association are also concerned about squad places for the 2026 Winter Games.
On Thursday evening, in front of 2,107 spectators, veterans Dominik Kahun (7th), Yasin Ehliz (12th) and Marc Michaelis (58th) as well as defender Phillip Sinn (44th) were added to the list of applicants for the Olympics with his first international goal.
“It was a successful start,” said defender Leon Gawanke at “MagentaSport”. Although the German team “took a few penalties”, “on the whole” they were “pretty compact”.
Fight for the Olympic tickets
There is a lot at stake for the DEB selection at the tournament in Lower Bavaria: the nominees can play their way into the spotlight one last time, away from everyday league life.
The competition is huge, Kreis’ motto is clear: “No promises” from the national coach. A total of 25 players are allowed to travel to Milan and Cortina; the places alongside the seeded NHL professionals are highly sought after.
Kreis announced an “intense game” on “MagentaSport”, but the spectators in Landshut still had to be patient as the opening minutes were tough.
Then the guests gave the starting signal for a lively exchange of blows through Deniss Smirnovs (6th) – the Latvians were able to celebrate for a full 34 seconds before Swiss legionnaire Kahun struck ice cold. A little later Ehliz increased.
DEB team still challenged against Austria and Slovakia
The Olympian from Latvia was not a “walking customer”, warned DEB sports director Christian Künast in the first third of the break, but the German team quickly caused problems for their opponents in the second half.
The only thing missing was the power and Kahun had to leave the ice due to an injury. It was only at the beginning of the last part of the game that Kreis’ team showed themselves to be accurate again, and Sinn followed up. After Latvia took out the goalkeeper, Michaelis scored the final score.
The next opponent is Austria on Saturday (6:45 p.m.), and the tournament will end against Slovakia (2:45 p.m.) the following day.