National coach Marco Sturm “proud”: “We presented ourselves as a unit”
The breakfast room in the team hotel in Riga only slowly filled up on Monday morning. Understandably, because the national players had had a long night. The ticket for the 2018 Olympic Games was celebrated after the 3:2 victory over Latvia and the burden of the tension of the previous days fell from the players' shoulders as the evening went on. "The match against Latvia was very nerve-racking," said striker Patrick Hager.
This hit the nail on the head: against a strong Latvian team and the majority of the deafeningly loud 10.300 spectators in the Riga Arena, the national team held up bravely despite constant pressure from their opponents. “It was clear that Latvia would go one step further after our 2-0 lead. The game was close at all times,” nodded goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer.
The German goalkeeper appeared to be wide awake in the home team's pressure phases and made sensational saves at times. “Grubi held up outstandingly. “He was one of our guarantees of success,” said Patrick Reimer, praising his goalkeeper. Those in front of him thanked him in their own way. Two power plays were used. First Leon Draisaitl after an exemplary pass from Patrick Reimer and later Tom Kühnhackl took advantage of the numerical superiority alongside Felix Schütz's goal.
It was therefore logical that Stanley Cup winner Kühnhackl was particularly in focus after the game. After the game, the media in attendance went crazy over the Pittsburgh Penguins forward. However, he clearly placed the team's success in the foreground. “I don’t really care who scores the goals. The success of the entire team is important,” emphasized the left-handed shooter and added: “This victory and participation in the Olympics are phenomenal. We are exhausted, but happy.”
National coach Marco Sturm and the coaching team treated themselves to a well-deserved beer in the dressing room after the game. Numerous congratulations flooded his phone. “I am incredibly proud of this team, which has continued to improve over the past week and presented itself as a unit. It wasn't easy today to compete against such a strong team like Latvia, but we always scored the goals at the right time and were good at the back," said the ex-NHL professional.
Sturm and the North American protégés set off overseas at 6 a.m. on Monday morning. The rest of the team flew towards Frankfurt and Munich at midday. From there we went back to the DEL clubs. The team will only meet again in November Deutschland Cup in Augsburg.
Then of course without the protégés from overseas. They definitely want to be there at the home World Cup in May 2017. However, as always, this depends on how the NHL season goes. The heroes of Riga were probably one of the best German ice hockey teams in recent years for a long time.
In addition to Germany, Norway, who prevailed in the final against France, and Slovenia, who secured their Olympic ticket against the home team from Belarus in Minsk, qualified for the other two tournaments. The group division for Pyeongchang has now been determined. Germany will face Finland, Norway and Sweden in the group stage. There is further information about this here