If Germany had played like this from the start of the Ice Hockey World Cup, the quarter-finals would not be in danger. The DEB team celebrated an impressive debut victory against Hungary with a score of 6:2 (2:0, 2:0, 2:2).
Although Germany had a lot of bad luck in the previous game against the USA (3:4 after a penalty shootout) and narrowly missed out on their first win due to a referee’s decision, it was clear on Friday how much momentum this game gave. The DEB team obviously appeared with significantly more self-confidence against Hungary and finally played again as befits a silver medalist from the last 2023 World Cup.
“We are very happy, we knew that we absolutely had to win. The main thing is that we played a brutally good game over 60 minutes”said Leon Gawanke, who was the man of the day with three goals, in a Sportschau interview. “For me it’s a nice thing, but the most important thing is the competitive game and that we left no doubt about it from the first minute. We’ve shown twice now that we can play well over an entire game, that’s important for people’s minds.”
German dominance in the first 20 minutes
The first third took place almost entirely in the Hungarian third, with the outsiders only firing two shots in the 20 minutes. DEB goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer had a quiet start to the third-to-last game of the group phase after his hard work against the USA.
On the offensive, the German team impressed with their patience, waiting for the perfect opportunity – and it arose, among other things, in the ninth minute. Then Eric Mik shot the puck from the boards towards the goal, where Nicolas Krammer completely blocked the view of the Hungarian goalie Bence Balizs, making it 1-0.
The first goal came immediately after the first power play, and for the second goal, coach Harold Kreis’ team benefited directly from the second power play. Shortly before the third break, Gawanke completed a strong combination with a direct shot into the far corner (20th).
DEB team against Balizs – until Reichel scores
The dominant performance of the previously disappointing DEB team (one point from four games) did not change in the second round. Hungary mostly only managed to break free over their own blue line, and goalkeeper Balizs was constantly in the spotlight.
The 35-year-old performed really well there. Germany failed to make the result even clearer early on and missed a lot of top chances. It wasn’t until the 40th minute that Lukas Reichel made it 3-0. And with that the spell was broken, because just seconds later Samuel Dove-McFalls even increased the score to 4-0 (40th).
Germany was careless in the final third
The decision had been made, but the German team continued. This also applied to scoring goals. Less than two minutes passed before Gawanke scored his second goal of the day; once again Germany had played through the opposing defense almost effortlessly (42′). Only then did Hungary have a small period of pressure and a few chances: Grubauer was initially there, but then made a mistake when Tamas Sarpatki conceded the first goal (45′).
With this moment the district team initially lost the thread, but they were lucky that another Hungarian goal from Doman Szongoth (50th) was subsequently disallowed because Grubauer had been tackled beforehand. Germany took this warning shot to heart, switched back to the offensive gear and restored the old distance: just seconds after the supposed 2:5, Gawanke scored again to make it 6:1 (50th).
District demands the same performance against Austria
The final point of the game belonged to Hungary, in the 58th minute Janos Hari was able to reduce the score to the final score. But that didn’t change the fact that Germany not only achieved their first win in the group phase and thus retained their chance of reaching the quarter-finals, but above all their form continued to show an upward trend ahead of the crucial games against Austria (Saturday, 8:20 p.m.) and Great Britain (Monday, 8:20 p.m.). But two more wins are needed for the top 4 in the group phase.
“The game was important for the morale of the players. We have to continue that now against a much more difficult opponent who makes the spaces much narrower”said Kreis in the Sportschau interview.
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