Dhe German national ice hockey team has not come any closer to early qualification for the quarter-finals at the World Championships, despite a strong show of will. In the duel with Finland, the last title holder before the Corona interruption, the selection of national coach Toni Söderholm was defeated 1: 2 (0: 1, 1: 0, 0: 1). “Finland was very structured, it’s a very good team,” said Söderholm. “We should have played a little better on the offensive. After winning duels, more speed would have been good to find the free ice sooner. “
Get free access to all articles on FAZ.NET for 30 days with F +.
READ F + NOW
In terms of speed, precision and tough duel, she was not quite up to the champions of 2019 in her fifth preliminary round match and thus lost three more important points for the second time in a row. “Despite the defeat, we played a good game,” said Leon Gawanke later, who stated that it would have “been deserved” if there had been something countable for the performance. And Korbinian Holzer said: “Today we are frustrated. Nobody is happy about the 1: 2 against the reigning world champion. We have higher expectations and wanted more. “
Söderholm, who grew up in Finland and has now made his home in Munich, switched ranks for the game on Saturday evening against his home country for the first time and plays with seven defenders and 13 forwards. Mathias Niederberger was once again trusted in goal in the arena in Riga.
Germans are not shocked
But Lukas Reichel was missing: The top talent of the Eisbären Berlin, who is considered a future German professional overseas, was canceled because he was still bothered by the consequences of the check against his head from the game against Kazakhstan and Söderholm did not Wanted to take risks; In addition, striker Lean Bergmann and defender Marcel Brandt were not in the squad.
For their first World Cup appearances, on the other hand, the strikers Andreas Eder, Daniel Fischbuch and John-Jason Peterka, who stood out with several successful scenes. The change had the consequence that Söderholm converted two of four formations. The “Mannheim” attack (Eisenschmid, Loibl, Plachta) stayed together, as did the “Landshuter” (Kühnhackl, Krämmer, Rieder).
When Moritz Seider had to sit on the bench to take a two-minute penalty for a cross check, it only took eight seconds for the Finns to benefit: Anton Lundell took the lead (7th minute). Impressed or even shocked, the Germans did not react to the deficit. Quite the opposite was the case.
The lesson they learned from the mistake as quickly as possible was that they would only survive if they showed the highest level of discipline. From then on, Leo Pföderl often claimed the target in fore checking, thus gaining space and time for his colleagues. Moritz Seider (13th) and Tobias Rieder (18th) gave two counter opportunities against the Finns, who were difficult to lure defensively from the reserve.
The Finns are very efficient
The equalization then resulted from a clever combination of the two defenders Korbinian Holzer and Moritz Müller, who ventured deep into the opposing half: Captain Müller irritated with a dangling goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora, who reacted with a wobble of his glove and had no chance when Holzer shot in from a distance to 1: 1 (28th). It was already the second tournament goal, the veteran who was last under contract in Russia, who will then be the Adler Mannheim in the summer.
In this phase of the fast-paced conflict, the Germans were equal. Opportunities to add more were also available in the power play through clever puck conquests after offensive face-offs, but the advances either lacked accuracy or a stick blocked the pass path at the last second. Efficiency, on the other hand, is one of the strengths of the Finns – also at this event.
When they had just been outnumbered, Lundell switched the fastest, served the better positioned Arttu Ruotsalainen, who did not hesitate and let Niederberger get out (52nd). And although Söderholm took full risk in the end and took Niederberger out in favor of another outfield player, the Germans could not strike back again. For them it was the 33rd defeat in the 55th test of strength with Finland. For the time being it occupies the fourth place in the table in group B.
The United States had prepared for the meeting with the Germans on Monday with a narrow victory in the afternoon. Team USA won 2: 1 (1: 0, 1: 0, 0: 1) against Norway and thanks to their fourth success in a row they are now on course for the knockout round with twelve points. Thanks to the first double-digit win of the tournament, the Kazakhs are also in a good position as third: They outclassed the southern European outsiders 11: 3 (1: 0, 2: 1, 8: 2) and can now show ten points. One more than the Germans. “We know the Americans are tough opponents. But we have shown that we can beat strong opponents with passion, ”said Gawanke.
.
