Ice Hockey World Cup record win against Latvia: DEB team overcomes frustration
The DEB selection achieved a convincing victory against Latvia. photo
© Darko Vojinovic/AP/dpa
Vice world champion Germany has shown the perfect reaction to the defeats against the USA and Sweden with their best World Cup performance so far. There is a landslide win against Latvia.
The knot seems to have been broken: with the returnee Nico Sturm, the first World Cup goals from NHL star JJ Peterka and the highest World Cup victory in 22 years, vice world champion Germany is back on course for the quarter-finals.
The best tournament performance to date led to an 8:1 gala (2:0, 5:1, 1:0) against World Cup third place Latvia in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Germany had never won by anything like this against the Latvians at a World Cup.
“It couldn’t have gone better,” said NHL attacker Nico Sturm from the San Jose Sharks at ProSieben. The 2022 Stanley Cup winner was missing from the last two 6-1 defeats against the title favorites USA and Sweden and was sorely missed. With his face-off strength, decisive puck wins and determination on the boards, he went ahead again and in the last third (45th minute) put the final point in the victory, which was well deserved at this level.
Peterka, who was named the best World Cup striker last year, also had a great time against Latvia. The Buffalo Sabers attacker contributed two goals (26th/36th). “Of course I was frustrated the last few games,” Peterka told MagentaSport. “Today we performed really, really well as a team.” The other goals were scored by Dominik Kahun (6th), Kai Wissmann (19th), Leonhard Pföderl (21st), Parker Tuomie (23rd) and Marc Michaelis (31st) in front of 8,652 spectators.
Bright prospects for the quarter-finals
“That has a lot to do with the last few days. We sat together a lot,” said Peterka. The defeats against the USA and Sweden also left their mark on the team. “More important than the result today was the manner,” said Sturm. Before the remaining preliminary round games, the prospects of reaching the minimum goal of the quarter-finals are now bright and self-confidence has increased significantly. The next opponent is Kazakhstan on Friday (4:20 p.m./ProSieben and MagentaSport). This is followed by the games against newly promoted Poland and France. “It won’t be easy in the next few days,” warned Sturm, and Berlin champion defender Wissmann also said: “We can’t fly too high now.”
But with six points from four games, national coach Harold Kreis’ team can even afford a slip in the next three games. But if the German Ice Hockey Association selection continues like this and wins the next three games, the starting position for the knockout games would improve significantly.
DEB team strong in defense, ice cold in attack
Against the Latvians, against whom there had previously only been World Cup victories with a maximum difference of two goals, things went much better in defense than before and almost perfect in attack. “Of course we expected it to be closer, but we also took advantage of the chances,” said Wissmann, who scored with a strong solo to make it 2-0.
The runner-up world champion was merciless and showed no mercy to Kristers Gudlevskis from German runner-up Bremerhaven in the Latvian goal. Annoyed, Gudlevksis was substituted after Straubing’s Tuomie conceded the fourth goal. But NHL keeper Elvis Merzlikins from Columbus wasn’t lucky either and scored four more goals
Around 1,000 German fans in Ostrava couldn’t stop cheering. The 1:7 by Markuss Komuls only caused brief joy among the around 4,000 Latvian supporters (40th). In the final third they showed gallows humor in the face of the bitter lesson and celebrated the wave in the stands.
dpa
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