4:3 win against South Korea at the end of the preparation / Eisenschmid and Uvira with their debut goal / The final World Cup squad should be announced by Monday at the latest
Dress rehearsal was a success! In the last preparatory game for the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship starting next week in Herning/Denmark (May 4th - 20th, 2018), the German national ice hockey team won 4:3 (0:0, 2:3, A 2-0 win over South Korea ensured a positive conclusion to the four-week test phase. With a total of four wins from eight games, national coach Marco Sturm's team was able to play successfully in half of their preparatory games.
Dennis Seidenberg was back in the German squad for the first time since the 2017 home World Cup in Cologne. The New York Islanders defender joined Wolfsburg's Björn Krupp. Bernhard Ebner had to pass for that. Against Denmark, the Düsseldorf player was unfortunate when a teammate's bat hit his face. Timo Pielmeier started in goal.
Germany took control of the game against the Asians right from the start and showed great enthusiasm. However, despite good opportunities from Markus Eisenschmid, Yasin Ehliz and Leon Draisaitl, the goals were missing.
But the South Koreans scored even quicker in the second half. The free-standing Jun Yeong Seo gave Pielmeier no chance. Markus Eisenschmid scored his first international goal a little later after decisively deflecting a cross from Leon Draisaitl. However, South Korea continued to shine in efficiency: ex-DEL player Brock Radunske and Jin Kyu Park even increased the score to 3-1 for the counter-attacking Asians. Draisaitl managed to catch up before the second break.
In the final half, the national team struggled to turn the match in their favor. Yasin Ehliz rewarded his tireless efforts with the 3:3. Sebastian Uvira deservedly turned the game around 4-3 with his first goal in a German jersey.
Directly after the dress rehearsal, the team will travel back from Odense to Germany in the evening before the final World Cup squad travels back to Denmark next Tuesday. Sturm still left it open which players will jump on the World Cup bandwagon. The national coach said the final nomination is expected by Monday at the latest.
National coach Marco Sturm about the game: “We saw that nothing was given to us for free. That was already the case against Denmark. We played against a team that was keen to run, struggled a bit, but ultimately deserved to win. You can see how close the teams are to each other. That's why I'm happy that we won today. During the preparation the results are rather insignificant, but at the end they count.”
Germany: Pielmeier (Niederberger) – Seidenberg, Krupp; Michaelis, Tiffels, Eisenschmid – Mebus, Mo. Müller; Ehliz, Draisaitl, Plachta – Zerressen, Akdag; Kammerer, Pietta, Ma. Müller – Wagner, Nowak; Krämmer, Höfflin, Uvira
Gates: 0:1 Jun Yeong Seo (20:37), 1:1 Markus Eisenschmid (24:37), 1:2 Brock Radunske (29:27), 1:3 Jin Kyu Park (34:02), 2:3 Leon Draisaitl (36:18), 3:3 Yasin Ehliz (49:36), 4:3 Sebastian Uvira (55:52)