Draisaitl, Macek, Wolf and Schütz scored in Kühnhackl's international debut / Sunday dress rehearsal
The German national ice hockey team won the first of two consecutive preparation games in Belarus: In Stanley Cup winner Tom Kühnhackl's international debut, national coach Marco Sturm's team deservedly won 4-0 against France in Minsk on Saturday ( 1:0, 1:0, 2:0). However, there is hardly any time to take a breather. The duel with hosts Belarus will take place on Sunday (16 p.m.), which is also the dress rehearsal for the Olympic qualification next weekend in Riga, Latvia (September 1st - 4th).
The selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (DEB) took the reins in the first section and achieved visual superiority. Two outnumbered situations were survived unscathed. Philipp Grubauer in the German goal only had to use all his skills against Gregory Baron. On the other hand, Marcel Noebels had a promising chance of failing with a break from the French keeper. Leon Draisaitl then gave Germany the lead around two and a half minutes before the end of the period.
In the middle half the picture was the same: the national team dominated the game and disrupted their opponents early on. While a double majority remained unused for around a minute and a half, Brooks Macek made it 2-0 after a fine combination via Draisaitl and Tobias Rieder. Yannic Seidenberg and Rieder then both failed due to the metal. Dennis Endras, who replaced Grubauer between the posts midway through the game, only found himself in the spotlight once when a slap shot hit his helmet. Fortunately, there were no serious consequences for the man from Mannheim.
After the last change, David Wolf and Felix Schütz made everything clear for the German selection early on. Both strikers scored on the power play. Both Grubauer and Endras were able to share their “shutout”.
National coach Marco Sturm: “We can be satisfied with both the game and the result. We controlled the game from the start and created good chances so that we could have scored one or two more goals. I saw good approaches for the first game. All four lines worked and the goalkeepers were in position. Nevertheless, we have to prepare for an even stronger opponent on Sunday and approach this game with the same discipline.”
Germany: Grubauer (31. Endras) – Holzer, Ehrhoff; Rieder, Draisaitl, Macek – Müller, Bolye – Schütz, Hager, Kühnhackl – Hördler, Akdag; Kink, Goc, Seidenberg – Daschner; Wolf, Kahun, Noebels; Fauser
Goals: 1:0 Leon Draisaitl (17:21), 2:0 Brooks Macek (32:16), 3:0 David Wolf (48:13/PP1), 4:0 Felix Schütz (50:07/PP1)
Penalty minutes: 6 + 10 Kink – 14
Spectators: 350