After their third win in a row, the German runners-up have almost secured their place in the quarter-finals at the Ice Hockey World Championships in the Czech Republic. After two resounding victories, national coach Harold Kreis’ team had a difficult time in the 4:2 (0:0, 2:0, 2:2) win against newly promoted Poland on Saturday (May 18, 2024) and had to tremble again in the final minutes.
Düsseldorf’s Alexander Ehl (26th minute), NHL goalscorer John-Jason Peterka (36th, 57th) and Munich’s Yasin Ehliz (45th) scored the goals for the German team in Ostrava. Patryk Wajda (54th) and Filip Komorski (56th) scored late for the bottom team in Group B and made the encounter exciting again.
To the live ticker: Germany versus Poland arrow right 5th group match day arrow right
“When the Poles did the two things, they got a lot of momentum,” said JJ Peterka to Sportschau after the game, “also from the Polish fans. That’s why we had to stay well in the D zone, stay patient and our Take chances.”
Stachowiak and Szuber against their country of birth
The game was particularly emotional for Wojciech Stachowiak and Maksymilian Szuber, who played against their country of birth. Both had their own fan club with them: the families who had made the short journey across the border, just ten kilometers away, supported them in the stands.
After three games in a row, NHL goalie Philipp Grubauer was given a break, Munich’s Mathias Niederberger, one of the outstanding players in last year’s silver coup, was given his second chance from the start. Once again, Kreis didn’t change anything about the attacking lines and defensive pairings. After 16:3 goals in the previous games there was no reason for that.
However, the German team didn’t start as furiously as they did in the 8-1 win against Latvia and the 8-2 win against Kazakhstan. Freiburg second division goalkeeper David Zabolotny initially had little to do. The Poles, cheered on by around 4,000 compatriots, were even more dangerous in front of the goal. The DEB selection played too complicated and not goal-oriented enough. Even the previously strong power play didn’t work in the first attempt.
More pressure in the second third
In the second half, the district team increased the pressure and took the lead with Ehl’s first goal of the tournament. But the knot wasn’t broken yet: nothing came out of the second power game. Then the Poles helped when defender Krystian Dziubinski threw his stick when Ehliz had a chance to score – Peterka converted the penalty into his fourth goal of the tournament.
Ehliz apparently put the lid on things after a few minutes in the final third with his 30th international goal. But Poland came close again before Peterka scored Germany’s 28th goal in the preliminary round – the last time a DEB team had scored more in the group phase was in 1992.
At the end of the preliminary round, the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) will meet France on Tuesday (12.20 p.m.).
