First World Cup game, first win: At the start of the group phase of the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia, the German national team met newly promoted Great Britain. In the end she sat down DEB-Selection with 3:1 (0:0, 1:0, 2:1).
After weeks of preparation, there was great anticipation for the start of the World Cup. The German team went into the match with great enthusiasm. National coach Toni Söderholm trusted Mathias Niederberger to take the goal. Defender Jonas Müller and the two strikers Stefan Loibl and Marc Michaelis were unused.
In the first third, the German national team played more of the game, while the British countered the attacks with a lot of effort. On the other hand, Mathias Niederberger was tested significantly less often than his counterpart, but was still on hand for some dangerous counterattacks. Despite the increased opportunities DEB-Selection had no goals on the scoreboard at the first break.
In the second third, national coach Toni Söderholm's team increased the pace and effort towards the goal. This created further great opportunities. But they had to go for the redeeming goal DEBselection had to wait until shortly before the end of the third period. World Cup debutant Moritz Seider (40th) scored the redeeming 1:0 after a pass from Yannic Seidenberg. First goal for the 18-year-old defender in his second appearance for the German national team.
In the 44th minute, however, the British shocked the German team: Leon Draisaitl lost the puck behind the goal and Mike Hammond took advantage of this to equalize at 1:1. But Yasin Ehliz had the right answer seven minutes later and restored the German lead. Leon Draisaitl made the decision in the 53rd minute, making it 3:1 after a strong combination involving Markus Eisenschmid and Matthias Plachta. In the end, the German team celebrated a hard-fought 3:1 victory against Great Britain.
The second World Cup game for the German national team is scheduled for Sunday. It hits at 16.15:XNUMX p.m DEB-Selection on Denmark. The game will be broadcast live on SPORT1.
Toni Söderholm, national coach: "It was a lot of work today. The boys created a lot of scoring opportunities but weren't able to capitalize on their efforts at first. But we continued to implement our game plan and stayed calm even after conceding the goal. In the end, that was the key to success."
Yasin Ehliz: "The British made it really difficult for us today. Whenever something got through, the goalkeeper was there for them. Moritz's goal was a bit of a relief. It was important that we didn't get nervous. The first three points are good, but tomorrow we'll be back!"
Moritz Seider: "We knew that the British would get their chances, but ultimately we solved it well. It is of course nice that my goal was the first to solve the problem. After that we were able to play more freely and created more chances. We were active, creative and played straight forward. Of course we all know that we have to improve our game to be successful against the Danes tomorrow."
You can find all the statistics for the game HERE.