The medal dream lives on: DEB team sensationally storms into the World Cup semi-finals

The medal dream lives on
DEB team storms sensationally into the World Cup semi-finals

A big fight at the back, effective at the front: The German national ice hockey team impressed in Riga by beating Switzerland and making it into the semi-finals of the World Cup. This has only happened twice before. Above all, the German duel strength is a guarantee for success – and for the Olympic ticket.

With the next knockout victory against Switzerland, the German national ice hockey players have bought their Olympic ticket and are reaching for their first World Cup medal in 70 years. The team of national coach Harold Kreis again prevailed in the quarter-finals against their arch-rivals 3-1 (1-0, 2-1, 0-0) – for the third time since 2010.

“I’m just overjoyed that we won,” said Marcel Noebels: “Incredible, another team effort. We deserved to win and were very effective.” The Berliner firmly believes in the medal, “because we’re really keen on it and we finally deserve it.” On Saturday it’s against the USA in Tampere for a place in the final and the first World Cup medal since silver in 1953.

In Riga, the most important player was missing halfway through the game: young NHL star Moritz Seider was put off the ice after a tough check on the rink. But even without the 22-year-old, Munich’s Maximilian Kastner (7th), NHL rookie John-Jason Peterka (38th) and Stanley Cup winner Nico Sturm (39th) disenchanted the self-proclaimed title contender with their goals and ensured a Déjà vu: Two years ago, the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) threw the Confederates out of the tournament in the first knockout round.

“Our best defender is out, so we had to come up with something,” said Sturm, who scored outnumbered, at MagentaSport. After five wins in a row, the district team is back in Tampere in the semifinals against the USA for the first World Cup medal since silver in 1953. The Swiss, for whom only Jonas Siegenthaler (21st) scored in front of 2896 spectators, travel beaten home. The dream of the first world championship title after second places in 2013 and 2018 has burst again.

“Took the rhythm of Switzerland”

Sturm went ahead once again: Although he hobbled off the ice after a painful puck hit in the back of his knee, he continued playing shortly afterwards. Mathias Niederberger shone in goal with strong saves, in front of him Seider cleared – until he overdid it and received a game misconduct penalty (32nd).

Ten players were on the ice in the DEB team who were already there in 2021 – when Berlin’s Marcel Noebels decided the penalty shoot-out to make it 3-2 with a spectacular “one-handed”. In 2010 at the home World Cup, the German team triumphed 1-0 in Mannheim. On the way to the sensational Olympic silver medal in 2018, Germany had also knocked out their arch-rivals 2-1 after extra time in the play-off for the quarter-finals.

The Swiss were missing one of the six NHL professionals at the first face-off: Striker Denis Malgin fell ill, and, somewhat surprisingly, the goal was not the previously outstanding number one Leonardo Genoni, but Robert Mayer. Kreis hadn’t changed anything about his successful line-up and saw that Mayer promptly missed the opening goal when he let the disc slip through an actually harmless shot.

“With the goal, we took Switzerland’s rhythm,” said Kastner at Sport1. But the Swiss found it again at the beginning of the second half. However, the equalizer was preceded by a clear foul on Seider. But then the DEB team struck just when the top defender was already in the dressing room.

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