4:3 victory against Canada / Final against Russia / National team sparks euphoria
The German national ice hockey team has made history. With a 4:3 (1:0, 3:1, 0:2) victory against Canada, the DEB- selection not only reached the final, but already secured a medal. National coach Marco Sturm struggled for words: "These guys are unbelievable. I'm at a loss for words. What happened here is unbelievable."
From the beginning, the German team was on equal terms and gave the reigning Olympic champions little opportunity to develop. Goalkeeper Danny aus den Birken also played a strong and confident game again. Marco Sturm's team appeared with a lot of confidence and played boldly forward. In a balanced game, it was a power play goal that put the DEB- selection took the lead. After 15 minutes, Dominik Kahun set up Brooks Macek, who beat Canada's goalkeeper Kevin Poulin with a powerful wrist shot from the half-left position. David Wolf had also blocked the keeper's view.
Team Canada came out of the locker room with pressure and had the first chances to score. The German team quickly freed itself from the pressure and increased the lead to 24:2 after 0 minutes. Dan Boyle won the puck, Patrick Hager passed it across to Matthias Plachta, who coolly scored to make it 2:0. Just three minutes later, the DEB- Select the next opportunity. After his opponent lost a target, it was Marcel Goc who passed it across to Frank Mauer. With an artificial shot through the legs, Mauer even increased the score to 3-0. Even the first goal of the maple leaves by Gilbert Brule in the majority (29th) did not upset the German team. On the contrary. In the majority, Matthias Plachta shot from the blue line and the disc from Patrick Hager's knee landed in the net with an unsustainable deflection to make it 4-1. Shortly afterwards, an unpleasant scene followed. Brule brutally checked David Wolf in the head and rightly received a match penalty. Wolf had to be taken off the ice but came back into the game in the final third.
The Canadians quickly made it 4:2 through Mat Robinson, who scored after 43 minutes. Just a minute later, Dominik Kahun had a great chance, but he was denied a penalty by Canada's keeper Poulin. Ten minutes before the end, things got really tight again when the Canadians were able to reduce the score to 4:3. An unfortunate goal from the German perspective, as Derek Roy's pass was deflected by Björn Krupp's skate. There were some dramatic scenes in front of the German goal right up to the end, but the team held on to their narrow lead until the end.
In the final on Sunday at 5:10 German time it will be against the Olympic athletes from Russia for the gold medal.