Germany meets Norway, Sweden and Finland / Sunday over 400 viewers on SPORT000
On Sunday evening things happened in quick succession. When the German selection had bought their ticket for the Olympics, the qualifiers for the other tournaments had already been determined. In Group F, Norway beat France. In Minsk, Slovenia defeated Belarus in a penalty shootout in front of their home crowd. The groups for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang were then divided.
Germany and Norway move into Group C with Finland and Sweden. Canada, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Korea face each other in Group A. Russia, the USA, Slovakia and Slovenia face each other in Group B. The games will be played in Sochi as in 2014: after the preliminary round, the top three teams in each group and the best second-place team will advance to the quarter-finals. The remaining eight teams will play a kind of qualifying playoff game. The four winners will also advance to the quarter-finals. The chance of finishing third or fourth in the preliminary rounds ultimately ending up among the best eight teams still exists.
In the sold-out Riga Arena on Sunday, not only was the end result and the atmosphere excellent, but also the TV ratings. On Thursday and Friday, 130.000 viewers watched Marco Sturm's team against Japan and Austria live on SPORT1, and at the big showdown on Sunday against Latvia, 420.000 people were excited in front of the television or the SPORT1 live stream in Germany.