Last preliminary round game for the German national team at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia. It hits on Tuesday DEB-Selection in the Steel Arena to league leaders Finland. A very special game for national coach Toni Söderholm, who is facing his home country for the first time in his coaching career.
The game against Finland starts on Tuesday at 12.15 p.m. The game will be broadcast live as usual on SPORT1. Reporting from the German team's seventh World Cup game starts at 12.00 p.m.
National coach Toni Söderholm: “I expect a game between two well-organized teams that start the game with a different rhythm. Both teams will have passive and active moments. We want to attack even harder in front of the opponent's goal. It’s important to take the second and third shots too.”
The Finns have played an almost perfect tournament so far: The northern Europeans have won against Canada (3:1), Slovakia (4:2), Denmark (3:1), Great Britain (5:0) and France (3:0) – only against the USA did the team of head coach Jukka Jalonen have to admit defeat with a score of 2:3 after extra time. This puts the Finns at the top of Group A with 16 points – two points ahead of second-placed USA and four points ahead of Canada (3rd) and Germany (4th).
The Finnish team is led by captain Marko Anttila. The 33-year-old is one of 14 players who earn their money in their Finnish homeland. All eyes at the World Cup are on another Finnish player who is (still) active in Finland: shooting star Kaapo Kakko. The 18-year-old is considered a possible top seed in the 2019 NHL Draft and attracted attention at the World Cup with a brace against Canada, three goals against Slovakia and a goal and an assist against Denmark. Kakko is the current top scorer of the Finnish team with seven points.
The German national team has already met Finland 121 times in international match history. She was able to play 30 games DEB-Selection won, the game ended in a draw 14 times and Finland celebrated 77 wins. Most recently, the German team achieved success against the Finns at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Herning. Back then she won DEB-Selection after extra time with a goal from Markus Eisenschmid and secured their first World Cup success against Finland in 25 years.