The German national ice hockey team missed out on winning their group at the World Cup in Finland. In second place, the DEB selection goes into the quarter-finals with an excellent starting position.
The barely missed group victory was quickly ticked off. The national ice hockey team was more proud of the strong second place and the best preliminary round result in history in terms of points. Then the focus went straight to the World Cup quarter-finals.
“Great, but we still have to put that behind us now. On Thursday nobody will ask how we played in the preliminary round,” said Marcel Noebels after the 3: 4 (2: 1, 0: 2, 1: 0, 0 :0, 0:1) after a penalty shoot-out in Helsinki against Switzerland: “Then only win or lose counts.”
Thanks to the 3-0 victory in the evening of Olympic champions and hosts Finland, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm meets the twelve-time world champions Czech Republic in Helsinki on Thursday.
For Söderholm, however, the opponent does not matter. “It doesn’t matter, it’s a difficult tournament to choose your opponent,” said the Finn: “We play and we try to win. And then we’ll see.”
DEB team convinces in preliminary round
Kai Wissmann (12th), Stefan Loibl (16th) and Matthias Plachta (48th) scored the goals for the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB), which had previously won five times in a row for the first time in history. Andres Ambühl (2nd), Pius Suter (22nd) and Denis Malgin (39th) scored for Switzerland, Damien Riat made the decision in the penalty shootout.
The DEB team conceded the only defeat in the six matches before in the venerable “Helsingin Jäähalli” in the 3:5 at the start against Canada. Previously, in 2019 in Kosice/Slovakia, Germany had achieved its best preliminary round result in the current format with 15 points with five wins. In 2011 and 1933, the DEB selection had won the preliminary round in significantly smaller groups.
Regular goalie Philipp Grubauer, who returned after a two-game break, was caught cold: World Cup record player Ambühl, who replaced German record international Udo Kießling in his 120th World Cup game on Saturday, nailed a dry slapshot into the net. However, the DEB team was unimpressed. Daniel Schmölz and Maximilian Kastner failed with a double chance at Swiss goalie Reto Berra.
“Disastrous decisions” by the referees
The DEB selection subsequently rewarded itself for a tactically clever and disciplined appearance, with the aggressive forecheck the Swiss had problems. The hitherto extremely strong Wissmann struck ice cold in the first power play. Loibl followed suit.
After the first break, Grubauer was still there with the schooner against captain Nico Hischier for the first shot, then Suter smashed the puck in unstoppably. Shortly before the end of the second third, the post saved Grubauer in the Swiss power play, then the slap shot placed by Rosenheim at Malgins had no chance.
After the change of sides, replacement Leon Gawanke had to go into the dressing room with a blood-smeared face after an elbow check, which was incomprehensibly not punished, but was able to continue playing. Shortly thereafter, Plachta scored after a nice individual action.
Söderholm criticized “catastrophic decisions” by the referees, “that’s completely incomprehensible. That’s not part of the sport. We should actually play a five-minute lead.”
Sweden 1-0 Latvia (0-0, 1-0, 0-0). – Goal: 1-0 Nylander (34:54). – Penalty minutes: Sweden 6 – Latvia 4. – Spectators: 5560
Germany – Switzerland 3:4 (2:1, 0:2, 1:0, 0:0, 0:1) nP. – Goals: 0: 1 Ambühl (01:37), 1: 1 Wissmann (11:51), 2: 1 Loibl (15:30), 2: 2 Suter (21:26), 2: 3 Malgin (38: 31), 3-3 Plachta (47-57), 3-4 Damien Riat (penalty). – Penalty minutes: Germany 2 – Switzerland 8. – Spectators: 3862
USA 4-2 Norway (2-0, 1-1, 1-1). – Goals: 1-0 Hartman (03:45), 2-0 Boldy (07:20), 2-1 Martinsen (22:43), 3-1 Meyers (28:05), 3-2 Rokseth (41: 59), 4-2 Farrell (59-20). – Penalty minutes: USA 4 – Norway 4. – Spectators: 5435 (SID)
Slovakia 7-1 Denmark (2-0, 3-0, 2-1). – Goals: 1:0 Tatar (10:00), 2:0 Tatar (19:37), 3:0 Regenda (21:57), 4:0 Rosandic (32:17), 5:0 Slafkovsky, 5: 1 Blichfeld (47:43), 6:1 Nemec (58:53), 7:1 Regenda (59:19) (38:20). – Penalty minutes: Canada 8 – France 16. – Spectators: 3084
Finland 3-0 Czech Republic (2-0, 1-0, 0-0). – Goals: 1:0 Armia (09:31), 2:0 Mannins (16:17), 3:0 Rajala (35:34). – Penalty minutes: Finland 4 – Czech Republic 6. – Spectators: 11673
Canada 7-1 France (2-0, 2-0, 3-1). – Goals: 1-0 Cozens Dylan (12:40), 2-0 Comtois (17:31), 3-0 Dubois (22:07), 4-0 O’Dell (35:10), 5-0 Whitecloud (45:29), 5:1 Rech (48:20), 6:1 Dubois (51:16), 7:1 Severson (55:19). – Penalty minutes: Canada 2 – France 2. – Spectators: 2873