They were very close, but in the end the World Cup trophy once again went to Canada – and not for the first time to Germany. Although the final step to the greatest success in the history of German ice hockey did not take place, the tournament in Tampere and Riga offered a sporting spectacle that captivated the German public more and more in just under three weeks.
However, it started the way big tournaments start that don’t actually end well. With a series of player rejections, the reasons for which were probably just poorly disguised excuses. Above the Ice Hockey World Championships in Tampere and Riga was written in bold, italics and underlined: Emergency solution. Expectations were kept within very narrow limits.
Emergency solutions for the Ice Hockey World Cup
First of all, there were no big stars from overseas and no proven DEL scorers in the squad, plus a new national coach in Harold Kreis, who was described as a temporary solution after the sudden departure of Finn Toni Söderholm. So it came as no surprise to anyone that this DEB selection lost all of the first three games of this World Cup.
Against Sweden, Finland and the USA, each with only a one-goal difference, but three defeats were difficult to sell as respectable successes. Although it became clear in these first, rather unfortunate days in terms of sport, there is a lot of potential in this German World Cup team.
Captain Moritz Müller sets the course
As is almost always the case, Moritz Müller grew more and more into his role as leader in this critical opening phase. “We had previously played out this scenario of three defeats in the first three games”he says six months later in an interview with Sportschau. “And it was always clear to all of us: the fourth game, against Denmark, would show us the direction of this World Cup.”
It was a wild game. With a deficit, a lead, shots on the post, a great goal from defender and team captain Müller, with five goals in the last five minutes and a final score of 6:4, which once again left all hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. From now on there were only finals for the German team.
Germany’s nobodies are perfect
And the Nobody series in particular had long since played its way into the spotlight. With Wojciech Stachowiak, the guy with the flowing hair, with Parker Tuomie, the tireless powerhouse, and with Justin Schütz, the fearless daredevil. This series, marked on paper with the number 4, first grew together and then grew beyond itself. Against Austria, this series, together with an outstanding Nico Sturm, ensured the next success.
Every player became more confident and the processes became more natural. The preliminary round ended with a record of four wins and three defeats and a ticket to the quarter-finals in Riga. Against Switzerland. Once again. As has happened so often in knockout games. Again as outsiders, because the Swiss had played an almost perfect tournament so far, defeating the Canadians and also the Czechs. But the German team intended to send a clear signal.
Moritz Müller and Co. wanted to give the Swiss a foretaste of the game and chose the empty locker room that was opposite the Swiss locker room. “We didn’t want to come there and bother anyone, we wanted to be loud and offend.” They wanted to give the Swiss an acoustic middle finger in their comfort zone and put their boombox in front of the locker room door when the Swiss came booting off the training ice.
The Legends of Riga
Of course, this story has the makings of a legend, just like the quarter-final itself, in which the young Moritz Seider, full of arrogance, received a deserved game-time penalty early on and Germany had to make do without their best defender from then on.
Great two goals to make it 3-1 late in the second period. Through a wrist shot from JJ Peterka, who would be voted the best striker of the tournament a few days later, and through a shorthanded goal from Nico Sturm, which the Russian “Sbornaja” of the 80s couldn’t have played more beautifully.
Early deficit against the USA
And then, on that Saturday, when Borussia Dortmund lost the German soccer championship, there was a big showdown with the Americans, who had won the group game against Germany with luck and a late power play goal. This time the DEB selection was 0-2 behind after just four minutes, and the semi-final seemed to be taking its inevitable course. But the Germans equalized in the first third, then fell behind again, threw everything into it, but initially only hit the crossbar through Berlin’s Jonas Müller.
“I told Nöbi before every game that his moment would come,” recalls Müller. And this big moment came 83 seconds before the final siren, and Marcel Noebels, who had been rather hapless until then, scored a well-deserved equalizer. In extra time, the hour came for Freddy Tiffels, who flew down the left side with tremendous elegance and scored one of the most beautiful goals of this tournament: the goal to the final.
Pride and disappointment
Then the final – and the defeat. “I was very disappointed after the game,” says Moritz Müller today, just as he said back then in Tampere. “I had the feeling that we could become world champions.” Twice led, twice conceded the equalizer too quickly, and then against this one NHL-Troop from Canada got a bit lost in the last third and lost the final 2:5.
“We have to get better so that we can deliver our best performance in these big games,” said Nico Sturm. “We have made ourselves immortal”, Moritz Seider reveled. And the national coach? Of course, Harold Kreis also knew that although something historic had happened, the great triumph had not materialized. “We will never play together again in this formation,” said the national coach, and it sounded sadder than he probably meant.
That’s why he immediately added: “We have achieved something that can also be projected into the future.” That sounded like a promise of historic ice hockey days at the next World Cup in the Czech Republic.