The beginning of Harold Kreis’s federal coaching era for the national ice hockey team failed. Against the twelve-time world champion Czech Republic, Germany’s men started their World Cup preparations on Thursday evening (April 13, 2023) in Kassel with a 2:6 (1:0, 0:2, 1:4) defeat.
At the debut of the new national coach Kreis, in front of around 3800 spectators, only Düsseldorf’s Tobias Eder (9th minute) in the majority and Jonas Müller (52nd) from the Berlin Eisbären met for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Association, which, like the Czechs, still established a number players were absent.
Particularly bitter were two goals conceded in the final section by Roman Horak (41st) and Jakub Flek (50th), who had also scored the equalizer to make it 1-1 (28th). David Tomasek (35th), Ondrej Beranek (59th) and Filip Chlapik (59th) also scored in the empty German goal for the World Cup bronze medalist in 2022. On Saturday (5:00 p.m.) the second preparatory game against the Czech Republic will take place in Frankfurt the World Cup in Finland and Latvia in May.
Federal destrainer Kreis: “We will draw our conclusions”
“In some cases we made it too easy for the Czechs. We weren’t consistent enough with four goals“Kreis said at MagentaSport:”Today we made some bad decisions with the disc. From this we will draw our conclusions.”
The 66-year-old longtime DEL coach took over the national team after the end of the main round of the German Ice Hockey League in March because predecessor Toni Söderholm (44) switched to SC Bern in November. The Finn is no longer in office there.
Six games until the start of the World Cup
Kreis still has six more games to implement his ideas and find his World Cup team before the start of the World Cup on May 12 against Sweden. After the game on Saturday, there are still tests against Austria (20th and 22nd April), in Slovakia (28th and 29th April) and finally against the USA (9th May). Little by little, the current squad will also change and be supplemented by players from clubs that failed in the DEL playoffs, players who are still rested and North American professionals.
A good start is not enough
In the current squad, Kreis is missing, among other things, established centers in the storm. Nevertheless, the German team started confidently against the third place in the 2022 World Cup, as it had always been under Söderholm. The first goal of the Kreis era was scored by his former protégé Eder from the Düsseldorf EG with a strong majority.
However, the young Czech team got into the game better and better from the middle section and turned the game around. When it came to conceding goals, Maximilian Franzreb from Bremerhaven had no chance in the German goal on his international debut.