2:7 opening defeat at the Euro Hockey Challenge in the Czech Republic / second leg on Friday
The German national ice hockey team suffered a defeat at the start of preparation for the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in St. Petersburg (May 6th - 22nd). As part of the Euro Hockey Challenge, national coach Marco Sturm's team lost 3012:2 (7:0, 0:1, 3:1) to hosts the Czech Republic in front of 4 spectators in the “Zlatopramen Arena” in Usti nad Labem.
At the national team debut of goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger and striker Marcel Brandt (both Düsseldorfer EG), the German selection initially implemented the system given by national coach Marco Sturm excellently. The offensively minded Czechs rarely came into their own. In addition, the DEL goalkeeper of the year was in great form when he was the winner against Lukas Radil's solo effort as well as Tomas Zohorna's powerful shot. Jerome Flaake and Brooks Macek and Felix Schütz had the best opportunities on the German side. However, a hit was not possible.
In the second half, the national team immediately took control, exerted more pressure and thus had the best opportunities. However, Felix Schütz, Jerome Flaake and Simon Danner failed promisingly right at the start within just 90 seconds. That was to take revenge: Martin Zatovic made it 1-0. But just a little later, Schütz took a pass from Sinan Akdag directly and shot into the corner while standing at the far post. The home side were only briefly shocked and went back in front through Jan Rutta halfway through the game. Niederberger had no chance, just like when Petr Holik made it 3-1 shortly before the second break.
In the final half, Simon Danner brought his team closer with the second goal, but after that the home team became more clever and took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. In addition, the German selection lacked the strength to come back. Petr Koukal, Lukas Radil, Petr Holik and Tomas Vincour scored for the Czechs. The opponents will meet again at the same location next Friday.
National coach Marco Sturm: "In my opinion, the result was a little too high. The game was close and good for 30 minutes from our side. I can't blame the boys for their fight and passion, but it wasn't enough for 60 minutes. We saw that we still have a lot of work to do. Mathias Niederberger and Marcel Brandt put in a solid performance on their debut. Mathias kept us in the game for a long time. That makes it all the more annoying for a keeper to concede seven goals in his first game. Marcel created some good chances."
Marcel Brandt (Düsseldorfer EG): "I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but after one or two substitutions that calmed down. I felt very good afterwards. The pace was brutally high and the match was tough. The chemistry with my teammates Jerome Flaake and Daniel Pietta was good. Considering that we have never played together before and are together in this constellation for the first time, it was pretty good. We can only blame ourselves for not being able to take advantage of our great opportunities. The result was a bit too high."
Marcel Goc (captain/Adler Mannheim): “The defeat is okay, even if it was too big. In some cases we created some good opportunities, but unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of them. On the other hand, there were too many mistakes today that shouldn't happen to us. We gave up the goals too easily and now we have a day to work on it.”
Germany: Niederberger (Pielmeier); N. Goc, Reul; Ullmann, M. Goc, Höfflin – Akdag, Müller; Krämmer, Schütz, Macek – Ebner, Kohl; Brandt, Pietta, Flaake – Brückner; Buchwieser, Danner, Kink.
Gates: 1:0 Martin Zatovic (3:04), 1:1 Felix Schütz (4:33), 2:1 Jan Rutta (10:26), 3:1 Petr Holik (16:53), 3:2 Simon Danner ( 44:09), 4:2 Petr Koukal (47:08), 5:2 Lukas Radil (49:45/PP1), 6:2 Petr Holik (54:36), 7:2 Tomas Vincour (55:23/ PP1)
Penalty minutes: Czech Republic 2 – Germany 6
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