German selection wins 5-0 against Japan / Austria is waiting on Friday
The German national ice hockey team started the Olympic qualifying tournament in Riga, Latvia with a victory. The selection from the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund won (DEB) beat Japan 5-0 (2-0, 3-0, 0-0) in their opening game at the four-nation tournament in the Arena Riga on Thursday and will face Japan in the second tomorrow, Friday (14.30 p.m., live on SPORT1). Duel on Austria.
National coach Marco Sturm only changed his formations in one position compared to the dress rehearsal in Belarus. NHL defender Dennis Seidenberg (most recently with the Boston Bruins) celebrated his return to competitive play after more than six years away from the national team. The 2011 Stanley Cup winner joined Moritz Müller from Cologne.
Germany got off to a lively start against the outsiders and gave the Asians little space. The result: Brooks Macek made it 1-0 (4th). As a result, the German selection established themselves in the opponent's zone at times and used the oppressive superiority in the first 20 minutes to score another goal from Patrick Hager (18th). Japan's keeper Yutaka Fukufuji prevented a much bigger deficit.
In the middle third, Fukufuji again had his hands full. But the Japanese goalkeeper was powerless against further goals from NHL stars Tobias Rieder (23rd), Tom Kühnhackl (25th) and Felix Schütz (28th). On the other hand, Philipp Grubauer remained almost unemployed in the German goal.
The last round went like the first 40 minutes. However, the German selection was no longer as accurate this time. Which should no longer be of great importance given the result.
National coach Marco Sturm: “The only important thing is that we won. Games like this can go wrong from time to time. Even though the shooting statistics speak very clearly in our favor, in one situation or another we should have shot more instead of playing the cross pass. We take this victory with us now. A completely different game awaits us against Austria, so recovery is the most important thing now.”
“We are happy with the win, but that was just the first step,” said Captain Marcel Goc (Adler Mannheim): “The game is now over. We are now fully concentrating on the game against Austria. It will be a very big challenge.”
Tom Kühnhackl (Pittsburgh Penguins): “Japan was very tight and it was difficult to get through. But we played a good game. Of course there are still things we can do better, for example putting more targets on goal. The game on Friday against Austria is a very important game.”
Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers): “We dominated the game from the start. It was important that we were able to score an early goal. All four rows played great.”
Germany: Grubauer (Endras) – Holzer, Ehrhoff; Rieder, Draisaitl, Macek – Müller, Seidenberg – Schütz, Hager, Kühnhackl – Hördler, Akdag; Kink, Goc, Seidenberg – Boyle; Wolf, Kahun, Reimer; Fauser
Goals: 1:0 Brooks Macek (3:26), 2:0 Patrick Hager (17:22/PP1), 3:0 Tobias Rieder (22:07), 4:0 Tom Kühnhackl (24:44/PP1), 5:0 Felix Schütz (27:56/PP1)
Penalty minutes: 4 – 14
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