1:4 defeat against Canada / Reindl at the Hockey Sense Summit
Team Europe lost 1:4 to the highly favored Team Canada in the last main round match at the World Cup Of Hockey (WCOH) in Toronto. Coach Ralph Krueger's team is still in the semifinals and will face the winner of Group B, Sweden, next Sunday (September 25.09th / 19.00 p.m.).
The European selection was already 0-2 down after the first third, but scored a goal in the middle period but was ultimately unable to do anything against the dominant Canadians. The best chance of the game fell to German national player Tobias Rieder, who narrowly missed a counterattack opportunity. "If it had gone in, the game could have gone in a different direction," said the Landshut native after the game.
Despite the defeat, Krueger was satisfied with his team's performance: "We were sluggish at the beginning, but then we got into the game better in the second third. But Canada did a great job and hardly allowed any chances."
The first semi-final game will take place on Saturday. Canada's opponent will be determined today, either Russia or Team North America will face the top favorite. Krueger's team will then continue on Sunday. "This is a difficult task for every nation here. The tournament is slowly coming to the semi-finals and the best-of-three final series. In other words, each of the four teams has a good chance of winning. Today we saw what we have to do to achieve this. I still think that Canada is the top favorite. They have earned the respect of everyone else."
In the last warm-up game, Team Europe beat Sweden 6:2. The exceptional German talent Leon Draisaitl scored three times. At the time, the Scandinavians had just arrived from Europe and Krueger knows that the Swedes have already improved significantly. "We are looking forward to the game and know that they have improved since our last game against each other. But we have also become a better team and now know what we are capable of and what we have to play. So it should be a good game."
As part of the WCOH took place DEBPresident Franz Reindl took part in the so-called “Hockey Sense Summit” at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto over the past two days, as did national coach Marco Sturm, national coach for science and training Stefan Schaidnagel and DEB-Association coordinator Michael Bakos were present. The topic was the development of young talent ice hockey as well as ice hockey in general. In addition to many popular faces, the German representatives met a well-known face. NHLPA employee and former national goalkeeper Rob Zepp was firmly involved in the organization and implementation of the summit.
