Tuesday, June 1st, 2021
Canada is also enjoying a double blow
DEB team trembles strong in the quarter-finals
The last group game of the Ice Hockey World Championship is already a final for the German selection. And hosts Latvia are expected tough opponents. The DEB team quickly strikes twice and defends itself impressively in the final phase. Viewers Canada will benefit from this.
With another decisive victory against Latvia, the German national ice hockey team has regained hope of a World Cup coup. Thanks to the close 2: 1 (2: 0, 0: 1, 0: 0) in Riga against the World Cup hosts, who are fueled by almost 1000 spectators, Germany will meet Switzerland in the quarter-finals on Thursday. This brings back memories of the 2010 home World Cup, when the selection of the German Ice Hockey Association defeated the Swiss in the quarter-finals and surprisingly came fourth in the end. It is the best German World Cup placement since silver in 1953 to date.
Just in time for the decisive tournament phase, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm in Riga seems to be back in shape, but urgently needs to improve its superiority game. John-Jason Peterka (4th minute) and Marcel Noebels (7th) shot Germany after three defeats in a row to their ninth World Cup victory in their 14th game against Latvia. Only Rodrigo Abols (26th) scored for the Latvians, the hosts now have to watch the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, the injury-related loss of Olympic second Noebel, who had to leave the ice in the second third, was bitter.
Germany had already won important and close play-offs against the Latvians twice in the recent past. At the last German home World Cup in 2017, Frederik Tiffels Germany shot to a 4-3 win in the penalty shoot-out and thus into the quarter-finals. Three quarters of a year earlier, the jubilation was even greater when Tom Kühnhackl also scored 3-2 in Riga in the decisive game of the Olympic qualification for Pyeongchang and thus made the silver miracle in 2018 possible.
The support of the enthusiastic Latvian fans was not quite as frenetic as it was five years ago. Nevertheless, the 900 spectators who received tickets at short notice ensured a good atmosphere. “It’s great fun, the atmosphere is great,” said goal scorer Peterka at Sport1 about the return of the audience. The tournament had previously been held without fans due to the coronavirus pandemic, on Tuesday they were allowed for the first time.
The Berlin Masters Series shows how it is done
At first, this seemed to stimulate Germany and inhibit the Latvians. The DEB team got off to a perfect start with two hits within 204 seconds. Latvian goalkeeper Janis Kalnins didn’t look good when 19-year-old storm talent Peterka scored the first goal in the tournament. Just a good three minutes later, the Berlin championship series finally convinced again: Noebels used the beautiful pass from Leo Pföderl to his third World Cup goal and thus caused disillusionment for the World Cup hosts, who, like Germany, already had a draw after regular time for a place in the Knockout round would have been enough.
It was only from the second third that the Latvians put more pressure back on and were inspired by Abols’ subsequent goal. “We gave them the momentum and then they come with one wave after the other. We have to do the simple things right,” demanded veteran Korbinian Holzer, but announced confidently: “We have a bigger heart and we show that in the last third . “
Germany entered this game with the burden of three defeats in a row. After the World Cup highlight a week ago with a 3-1 win against Canada, the performance curve initially went down. As inexplicable as Germany’s performance slump in the tournament was, it was also in the game. The DEB team also became less and less dangerous when attacking the Latvians. With luck and trembling, the Germans survived the test of nerves in this all-or-nothing game.
The German coup, in turn, also pleased the Canadian selection. If the game against Latvia had gone into extra time, so both teams would have scored and the North Americans would have been eliminated. As it is, the motherland of ice hockey does not miss a place in the top eight for the first time, but is still in the quarter-finals as fourth in the group.
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