After their impressive appearance, the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Finland are the end of the line for the German national ice hockey team: Despite a courageous game, the DEB team clearly lost to the Czech Republic and have been waiting for a World Cup medal for 69 years.
The German national ice hockey team missed the repeat of last year's coup and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Finland. Almost a year after reaching the semi-finals in Riga and exactly 100 days after the early Olympic exit, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm lost 4-1 (0-2, 0-1, 1-1) against the Czech Republic in Helsinki. Germany has been waiting for a World Cup medal for 69 years.
NHL youngster Moritz Seider (54th) scored the goal in front of 4290 spectators for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB), which moved into the round of eight with the best preliminary round result in World Cup history (16). was. David Pastrnak (3rd), Roman Cervenka (11th) and David Krejci (33rd) each on the power play and Jiri Smejkal (59th) into the empty goal for the Czech Republic, which the German team had already knocked out in the round of eight in 2019 .
In the title fights last year, the DEB selection lost the semi-finals and ended up fourth, achieving their best result since silver in 1953 in Switzerland. The starting position compared to the quarter-final knockout Three years ago Thursday in the "Helsingin Jäähalli" could hardly have been more similar: Back in Slovakia, the DEB team wanted to take the momentum into the knockout round after the best group phase to date (15 points), but went against the Czechs 1:5 under.
As expected, Söderholm trusted his regular goalie Philipp Grubauer, who had shown in the preliminary round, especially in the 2-1 win against Slovakia, why he belongs to the absolute world class. After an early penalty from Yasin Ehliz, Grubauer had to reach directly behind him after a powerful shot by NHL star Pastrnak in the first game with a man down. The Czechs, peppered with NHL greats, kept up the pressure and sometimes caused serious problems for the German defense. Top scorer Cervenka followed up again in the power play after a dream combination.
It took almost eleven minutes for the German team to get their first shot on goal, but then they got into the game better. Shortly before the first break, AHL pro Lukas Reichel hit the post. After the change, the DEB selection stayed tuned, but conceded the next blow to the neck with the third goal they conceded outnumbered. Berlin's master striker Marcel Noebels then celebrated in vain after he only hit the crossbar.
"We had a bit too much respect," said defender Seider after 40 minutes at Sport1. Söderholm tried everything and took Grubauer out for the first time in favor of another field player during a power play nine minutes before the end - with success. The DEB team tried everything until just before the end.
