After the strong 9:4 against Italy, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm has reason to celebrate again: Germany has reached the next round at the World Cup.
The German national ice hockey team advanced early to the quarter-finals at the World Cup in Finland. The selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) benefited from France’s 0:3 (0:1, 0:1, 0:1) defeat against Denmark on Saturday. As a result, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm with twelve points from five games can no longer be dislodged from the top four places in group A before the last two group games.
Germany, in third place, celebrated their fourth success in a safe 9:4 against Italy on Friday and set the course for the knockout stages. The DEB team had previously won 1-0 against Denmark, 3-2 against France and 2-1 against Slovakia, who came third in the Olympics, and lost 5-3 to defending champions and record world champions Canada.
Germany could avoid top teams
In the last two preliminary round games on Sunday against Kazakhstan (3:20 p.m.) and on Tuesday against Switzerland (11:20 a.m./both Sport1 and MagentaSport), Germany wants to create a good starting position for the round of the last eight teams (from May 26). . Last year, the DEB selection at the World Cup in Riga stormed to the semi-finals and ended up fourth.
Ideally, the German team will reach the quarter-finals in second place. Then Germany would be able to avoid calibers like Olympic champions Finland, who were the first team to qualify early for the knockout stages in front of their home crowd on Friday, and eleven-time world champions Sweden and stay at the current venue in Helsinki.