Second goal festival in a row
DEB team also takes Kazakhstan apart
May 17, 2024, 6:48 p.m
Fantastic attacks, lots of hits: The German national ice hockey team clearly defeated Kazakhstan at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. After the shooting festival against Latvia, the door to the quarter-finals is wide open with the next impressive success.
After the wild rollercoaster ride of the first week, the German runners-up have made their way to the quarter-finals at the Ice Hockey World Championships in the Czech Republic. After two clear defeats and a landslide win, national coach Harold Kreis’ team also defeated Kazakhstan 8:2 (2:1, 3:0, 3:1). Another success from the remaining two preliminary round games will probably be enough to advance.
NHL debutant Maksymilian Szuber (2nd), Straubinger Parker Tuomie (3rd), NHL goalscorer John-Jason Peterka (22nd), birthday boy Lukas Reichel (29th/51st), Bremerhaven Lukas Kälble (36th) , Berlin’s Frederik Tiffels (55th) and Munich’s Maximilian Kastner (59th) scored the goals for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) in front of 8,479 spectators in Ostrava. Ingolstadt’s Wojciech Stachowiak also shone with four assists. Roman Startschenko (8th) and Artyom Korolyov (52nd) scored for the world number 15, which has so far only won against France. At the end of Group B, the district team will face newly promoted Poland on Saturday (4:20 p.m.) and France on Tuesday (12:20 p.m./ProSieben and MagentaSport each).
“We have found our identity,” Kreis said before the game on ProSieben, his order to the team: “Just go out and play hockey!” After the first day off as a reward for the 8-1 win against Latvia, the coach noticed “a lot more energy in the team” and “we’re bringing it onto the ice now.”
Reichel with two goals on his birthday
After 62 seconds, this energy led to the first goal: Szuber scored in the margin. Just 82 seconds later, “Totally detached” was booming from the speakers again – Tuomie increased the score to 2-0. But when Jonas Müller sat in the penalty box, the Kazakhs shortened the game: Startschenko outwitted goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer.
The outsiders then found their way into the game better, the German team, which started the tournament with a 6:4 against Slovakia and two 1:6 defeats against the favorites USA and Sweden, allowed more counterattacks. “We picked up where we left off,” said striker Maximilian Kastner after the first third at MagentaSport, “then we slacked off a bit.”
With a remarkable individual action just 71 seconds after the restart, Peterka restored the old distance. In the direct counterattack, Grubauer was lucky with a shot against the crossbar. On the other hand, coach Galym Mambetaliev changed the goalkeeper after just 22 minutes.
In the next few minutes, the DEB selection spent more time in their own third than they would have liked – but they remained effective up front: NHL striker Reichel celebrated his 22nd birthday with his first tournament goal – followed by a brilliant slap shot from Kai Wissmann, whose goal was withdrawn due to offside following video evidence. The 5:1 by Kälble followed only a little later. In the final third, Reichel crowned his day of honor with goal number two, followed by Tiffels and Kastner.