Goal drought ended, but lost again: The German national ice hockey team also missed a World Cup surprise against the second favorite. 24 hours after the 1-0 draw against Sweden, the team of national coach Harold Kreis lost to defending champion and Olympic champion Finland 3-4 (1-1, 2-2, 0-1) and is thus behind at a World Cup for the first time in 16 years two games without points there.
“We did a lot of things right, we played against two top nations and were close. That’s a shame. Both games were on the edge of the knife. But the players will get confidence from it,” said Kreis on “MagentaSport” and summed up: “We are on course.” Despite all the disappointment, captain Moritz Müller also seemed proud: “We were on an equal footing with the world champion, that’s good. If we continue like this, we’re on the right track.”
Berlin’s Marcel Noebels (18th) scored the first tournament goal for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) after almost 78 minutes. AHL defender Kai Wissmann (33rd) and NHL rookie John-Jason Peterka (40th) also scored. But the hosts prevailed in front of 11,712 spectators at the Nokia Arena in Tampere thanks to goals from Joel Armia (10′), Sakari Manninen (35′, 36′) and Mikko Lehtonen (53′).
The next task will not be any easier for the district team: On Monday (3:20 p.m. CEST/Sport1 and MagentaSport) the US team, which beat the Finns 4-1 at the start, is the third opponent.
Beam Meier for Niederberger in the DEB goal
In goal, Wolfsburg’s Dustin Strahlmeier replaced Munich’s Mathias Niederberger, who was given a break after his strong performance against Sweden. Born in Gelsenkirchen, he had to do hard work right away, because the Finns put the German team under enormous pressure from the first minute. The puck slipped through his first goal.
After 77:45 minutes, the DEB selection finally scored the first World Cup goal: a shot by Noebels was deflected by two Finns and became untenable for their own goalie. “The equalizer before the third break was important for the heads,” said captain Moritz Müller at MagentaSport, “we wanted to show that we can score goals.”
The German team missed two advantage situations in the second period, but struck immediately afterwards: Wissmann scored from the blue line. However, a double strike from Manninen put the Finns back in the lead, and then the power play worked: Peterka used the seventh majority.
Peterka with first World Cup goal
After the narrow opening defeat, the players were particularly annoyed about the zero, but saw no reason to worry. “We had the chances, we shouldn’t read too much into it now,” said captain Moritz Müller: “The finish just wasn’t quite there, we didn’t have the necessary luck here and there on the power play to get someone at the far post and keeps the trowel clean.”
The fact that the top five goalscorers of the past DEL season are missing is not decisive, said Marcel Noebels from Berlin: “I think we have enough guys who can score goals.”
NHL rookie John-Jason Peterka, among others, is said to be responsible for the goal tally, who created several good opportunities in the front row with Dominik Kahun and Frederik Tiffels, but didn’t get the puck over the line. “There are days when goalscorers don’t score,” said the 21-year-old from the Buffalo Sabers, “when nothing goes in.” At least he scored his first tournament goal against the Finns.