MArcel Noebels was already cheering. But no, that wasn’t in it either, the puck had landed on the crossbar. Noebels didn’t want to admit that, so he threw up his arms, but even that couldn’t change the referee’s mind in the second third of this World Cup quarterfinals in Helsinki.
It was supposed to be a big day for the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). Getting into the last four of a world championship, as was the case last year. But that didn’t work out – because the Czechs, who were by no means outstanding, mastered one thing perfectly: their majority game.
They scored three times with one man more on the ice, that was enough for a 4-1 win. Instead of continuing to Tampere for the final weekend, the Germans fly home on Friday.
Czech Republic with NHL scorer
In the end, what was true three years ago at the World Cup in Slovakia: historically good preliminary rounds, great ambitions at the start of the knockout phase, out against the Czech Republic. At that time it was 1:5, a game that national coach Söderholm didn’t let go of for a long time, as he got the feeling that there could have been more.
The beginning of the end: The Czech team celebrates the goal to make it 1-0.
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Image: dpa
So now the chance to make corrections, and Söderholm saw his team a step further than back then, they now have “more patience”. Which wasn’t the only reason why the Germans didn’t see themselves as outsiders at all, that was also down to the enemy. Of course, the Czechs are among the big six in world hockey, but they are no longer on par with Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
Especially when it comes to width, which is always particularly important during a World Cup because not all the stars are available. They were all the happier that NHL scorer David Pastrnak traveled to Boston after the play-off.
Ideenloses DEB-Team
He should be stopped, it was said before. What didn’t even happen for two and a half minutes, then Pastrnak shot in with a majority to make it 1-0. Seven minutes later it was: second majority, second goal. And what a thing: After three direct passes, the disc landed at Roman Cervenka, who completed the most beautiful combination of the day with the 2-0. And the Germans?
Appeared unimaginative, hadn’t even shot at goal up to that point because almost nothing was going to work. Here a puck jumped, there a pass was too imprecise, here someone chose the wrong path, there someone else lost a duel. It was ten minutes before the first chance. It got a little better after that, Lukas Reichel even hit the post, but the score didn’t change much after the first break.
Czech Finnish-compact
The second period had the same ingredients: weak start, fewer goals conceded, bad luck with an iron hit, few chances. Which was mainly due to Söderholm’s old coach Kari Jalonen. He’s been coaching the Czechs since spring, and since then there’s not much of their old elegance to be seen, instead they appear compact and Finnish.
It’s rarely spectacular, but it does get results. Against the Germans, the Czechs were enough with their three goals to steer the game in the right direction. Little happened at five against five. The only German goal came in the third period because Söderholm took out goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer in favor of a sixth field player.
Moritz Seider hit the bar to make it 1:3, then Reichel hit the bar again. No, that wasn’t the day of the DEB selection. When Grubauer went down again, the Czechs still hit the empty goal, a short time later the Ice Hockey World Championship 2022 was over for the Germans.
