Dress rehearsal was a success: The German national ice hockey team wins its last test before the Olympic Games against Italy. The victory is not very informative because the NHL stars were still missing. The number one topic was not the game, but standard bearer Leon Draisaitl.
Even without the NHL stars around Germany’s standard-bearer Leon Draisaitl, the national ice hockey team won the Olympic dress rehearsal against Italy. In Bolzano, national coach Harold Kreis’s team was able to impress the Olympic hosts for a long time, but in the end they only narrowly won 4:3.
With a double strike, Tobias Rieder (13th minute) from EHC Red Bull Munich put the German team in the lead. The long-injured Berliner Kai Wissmann scored just 86 seconds later to make it 2-0. The urgently needed defender got fit again in time for the Olympics.
After Fabio Wagner made it 3-0 (26th), everything looked like a clear success, but Italy was able to reduce the score to 2-3 in the middle third. Yasin Ehliz (50th) increased the score to 4:2 before the hosts scored the final point. After taking a clear lead, Harold Kreis’ team slowed down and was careful to conserve energy and avoid injuries.
The team travels to Milan on Thursday
The DEB selection will move to the Olympic Village in Milan on Thursday. The selection of the German Ice Hockey Association starts the tournament on February 12th against Denmark. Latvia (February 14) and world champion USA (February 15) are the other opponents in Group C.
The German NHL stars will also join the team in Milan in the coming days. Flag bearer Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) is expected to attend the opening ceremony on Friday.
A day later, the other NHL stars Philipp Grubauer (Seattle Kraken), JJ Peterka (Utah Mammoth), Lukas Reichel (Vancouver Canucks), Moritz Seider (Detroit Red Wings), Joshua Samanski (Edmonton Oilers), Wojciech Stachowiak (Tampa Bay Lightning), Nico Sturm (Minnesota Wild) and Tim Stützle (Ottawa Senators) will arrive in the Italian metropolis and join the team.
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