National coach Marco Sturm's newly formed team lost 1-4 to the hosts at the start of their World Cup preparations in Sochi
The German national ice hockey team lost the first of two consecutive duels against hosts Russia as part of the Euro Hockey Challenge. 40 days after the last meeting between the two finalists of the Olympic final in Pyeongchang, national coach Marco Sturm's team lost to the gold medal winners 11.171:1 (4:0, 1:0, 2:1) in front of 1 spectators in the "Bolshoy Ice Dome" in Sochi ). The opponents will meet again at the same venue on Saturday (16 p.m., live on SPORT1).
Mathias Niederbergers probably lost the most sweat after 20 minutes. The Düsseldorf keeper thwarted a number of the hosts' best chances with several brilliant deeds in a row. The Russian team, which was also newly formed, repeatedly presented the German defense with major challenges. Artom Ilyenko sank a counterattack to make it 0-1. Niederberger was powerless, but continued to show his class several times.
With double outnumbered players, the score was 0-2 from the German perspective after the first change. Kirill Semyonov scored from the air to make it 0-2. Simon Sezemsky was unlucky with the home team's third goal. The defender unintentionally steered a cross in front of the German goal into his own goal with his skate. The 0:3 also meant the score at halftime after 40 minutes.
In the final half, the national team, which had eight newcomers, tried to set more offensive accents and find their way into the duels better. That should be worth it. Marc Michaelis in his first international match was the quickest with a score of 1:3. Alexei Bereglazov took advantage of another penalty at the end to make it 4-1. Niederberger was right to be happy about being named the best player on his team.
Germany: Niederberger (Strahlmeier) – Zerressen, Daschner; Krämmer, Loibl, Elsner – Nowak, Wagner; Holzmann, Danner, Schmölz – Ebner, Sezemsky; Michaelis, Höfflin, Uvira – Bender, Brückner; Kammerer, harbor judge
Gates: 1:0 Artyom Ilyenko (9:11), 2:0 Kirill Semyonov (22:53), 3:0 Artyom Ilyenko (32:10), 3:1 Marc Michaelis (49:03), 4:1 Alexei Bereglazov ( 54:07)
Here you can find the entire statistics: http://online.fhr.ru/en/69509.html
National coach Marco Sturm: “We expected to face a tough opponent. In the first 40 minutes, Russia was the fresher and more active team. We played even better in the final half. We can build on the last 20 minutes.”
Marc Michaelis: “For me personally, this game was a great experience. At the beginning I felt a bit rusty, but from the middle of the second third things got better. Sebastian Uvira did a great job scoring my goal. All I had to do was hold the bat in. Of course it's a nice feeling to score for the national team in your very first game. But I would have preferred to win.”