When the team led by coach Uwe Krupp reached the quarter-finals in Bratislava in 2011 and lost 2-5 to Sweden, “Party Rock Anthem” was the hottest song in the world, the TV series “Game of Thrones” had just debuted on HBO and the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks were in the Stanley Cup final.
Yes, that was a while ago. So what was the trigger for this year's turnaround?
“We have a new coach and I think that now everyone wants to come back to the national team and play for our country,” said veteran winger Philip Gogulla after the 4-2 win over Hungary on Monday morning. “I think that’s the key point.”
Gogulla could be right. With Marco Sturm on the board, Germany was able to score some key victories; The first win against the USA since 2010 and against Slovakia since 2011. As the German top scorer and the most successful German player with the most games in NHL history (242-245-487 in 938 games), Sturm not only brings a relentless work ethic to the ice rink, but he also always has a smile on his face. And he carries his will to win with him to St.Petersburg.
You can feel the palpable enthusiasm of the group around Marco Sturm, who at the age of 37 has just ended his active career. His two-year contract for the position of head coach and general manager of the national team runs until after the upcoming 2017 home World Cup in Cologne and Paris. If Germany successfully completes Olympic qualification in September 2016, his contract will be extended until 2018.
Sturm is successful here and now, without fundamentally changing the composition of the team, he awakens the character of the German team. Finally, eleven players are putting on the jersey here, who were also there in the 14th place disaster under coach Pat Cortina last year. There are also seven returnees from the 2011 quarter-finals in the squad.
The three German top scorers with seven points each are Philip Gogulla, Felix Schütz and Patrick Hager. They are all long-term veterans of the national team. A sophisticated newcomer like Dominik Kahun (four points) provides a lot of variety on offense, even if he is not a game-winner like 18-year-old Patrik Laine.
Ultimately, Germany does what Germany does - be better than usual, individually and as a team. Hager, for example, had just one goal and three assists in 26 World Cup games until this year - now he already has seven points to his name after the group phase. With 22 goals in seven games, the German team has already scored as many points in this tournament as in 2002 (25 goals in seven games on the way to 8th place under the leadership of ultra-defensive coach Hans Zach).
When we asked the German captain, Marcel Goc, if he could assess what had happened compared to all the past flops, he said: “I think we are sticking and trusting more in our game plan. International comparisons are usually always close. In the first two games we played very mixed and lost both games. Then we picked up our pace and game.”
If you look back, Germany has lost a little more after each year in which it has not reached the quarter-finals since 2011.
In 2012 in Stockholm, an unusually weak defense hurt Jakob Kolliker's team. Germany was unable to find its way back into the tournament after a 2:3 defeat in the second game against Latvia. The low point was the 4:12 defeat against Norway. Germany ultimately finished twelfth after a 1:8 defeat against the Czech Republic.
2013 in Helsinki went according to the motto: If you miss it, it's over. Germany started with a 3:4 overtime defeat against Finland and ended with a 3:2 win against France thanks to Christian Ehrhoff's overtime goal. And although Germany collected points and never lost by more than three goals, it wasn't enough. Cortina took ninth place on his maiden trip to the German bank.
In 2014, the Germans totaled the same number of goals as the year before (13), but also allowed seven more (from 16 to 23). After beating Kazakhstan and Latvia in their first two games in Minsk, they followed up with five consecutive defeats, ultimately leaving them in 14th place. One of the bright spots was World Cup rookie Thomas Oppenheimer with four goals and two assists.
Last year in the Czech Republic during Cortina's swansong, the average goals conceded fell to 11 to 24. Games like the 0-1 defeat against Switzerland or the 2-3 defeat after a penalty shootout against Austria were the epitome of the team's lack of goalscoring the crucial moments. Germany finished the tournament in tenth place.
What about 2016? Germany not only made it to the quarterfinals, but was even able to finish third in Group B. Germany's quarter-final opponent will be host Russia (Thursday, May 3, 19.05.2016 / 19.15:2.36 p.m.). Thomas Greiss is the first regular NHL goaltender to be on the ice for the German team since Olaf Kölzig's heyday (92.5 GAA and XNUMX Fangquote for the New York Islanders in 41 games). He will have a lot of work to do in the do-or-die game against Sbornaja on Thursday.
“It doesn’t matter what happened in the past,” says Goc. “We are happy that we made it to the next round. But we are not satisfied with that. We know that it will be a difficult game and that we will definitely be the underdogs. But we will give you everything we have. And we know that Greisser, our goalkeeper, will give everything for us. We have to wait for our chances and hope that we can do one or two things up front.”
Germany's character will be in demand. On offense they will have to make do without Tobias Rieder (knee injury) and Gerrit Fauser (shoulder injury). In defense, Torsten Ankert (hip injury) has already had to return home.
The Germans are happy about the end of the five-year drought in the knockout phase Fans hungry for success. Who could emerge as a hero in these quarterfinals? The last time Germany won was in Mannheim in 2010. Gogulla scored a legendary goal to make it 1-0 against Switzerland. So what does the 28 year old say? Kölner Haie Players ahead of the decisive game on Thursday?
"Everything is possible."
from the IIHF / Lucas Aykroyd