- After a clear 6-1 defeat against the USA and Sweden, Germany crushed the Latvians 8-1.
- Hosts the Czech Republic and Denmark also have a goal festival in the “Swiss” Group A. After a spectacular final third, the Czechs ultimately won 7:4.
Group B
Germany – Latvia 8:1: After the Germans had nothing to report against the USA and Sweden and lost 6-1 each, they returned to victory in an impressive way against Latvia. Harold Kreis’ team shot the 2023 bronze winners out of the Ostrava Arena with 8:1 – their highest World Cup victory in 19 years.
After a balanced starting third and “only” a 2-0 lead, our northern neighbors really turned on the turbo in the second half. Within 5 minutes, Germany raised the score to 5-0. Even a temporary change of goalie in Latvia – ex-Luganesi Elvis Merzlikins came onto the ice after the 0:4 – couldn’t change that. Just 90 seconds later, Buffalo striker JJ Peterka scored on the power play.
Almost 10 minutes later, the 22-year-old made it 7-0 with an unfortunate deflected shot. With Dominik Kahun (SC Bern), who made it 1-0 with a rebound (6th), and Marc Michaelis (former EVZ), who kept track of the confusion (31st), there were also two in Switzerland well-known faces in the scorers list. The Germans only needed 31 shots to score 8 goals.
Slovakia – Poland 4-0: Poland suffered its 4th defeat in the 4th group game – for the first time the promoted team failed to score. Goalie Tomas Fucik had to accept the first goal after just 123 seconds when Lukas Cingel only had to hit the empty goal after an assist from Tomas Tatar. In the 12th minute it was the captain himself who increased the score to 2-0. Within just 12 seconds in the third period, the Slovaks made it 4-0, with Cingel completing his brace.
Group A
Czech Republic – Denmark 7:4: In Game 1 after the defeat against Switzerland, hosts Czech Republic needed a wake-up call against Denmark. One minute after Christian Wejse’s power play goal to make it 0-1 (19th) and just 8 seconds before the first break, San Jose Sharks defender Jan Rutta equalized from distance (20th). In the second third, Jakub Flek made it 3-1 within 99 seconds after a wonderful solo effort (23rd) and Lukas Sedlak (25th).
But the Danes didn’t give up and fought their way back to 3-3 until the 45th minute. The equalizer was another wake-up call for the Czechs, who moved ahead 6-3 between the 47th and 52nd minutes thanks to goals from Tomas Kundratek, Dominik Kubalik and Matej Stransky.
The brave Danes responded to Stransky’s goal just 21 seconds later with their 4th goal by Mathias From. A minute later, New Jersey Devils attacker Ondrej Palat restored the 3-goal lead (54′).