The German national ice hockey team is traveling to the 2021 IIHF World Championships in Riga with an important victory behind them. The team of national coach Toni Söderholm retained the upper hand in the final test of the World Cup preparations against Belarus with 2:0 (1:0, 0:0, 1:0) and gained the hoped-for self-confidence for the tournament in Latvia (May 21st to 6th of June). In the ARENA NÜRNBERGER Versicherung, Mannheim's Markus Eisenschmid (6th) took the lead for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation, before Munich's Justin Schütz (43rd) extended the result in the final section and secured success.
Once again, Mannheim's Felix Brückmann received the award DEB-Goal had confidence from the start, this time Andreas Jenike from Iserlohn secured him as back-up. Brückmann impressed with calm and confidence and kept his goal clean. The 30-year-old then became the best player in the game DEBteams selected. Defender Marcel Brandt was missing and Daniel Schmölz was also sidelined. Compared to the previous day, Colin Ugbekile from Cologne and Andreas Eder from Straubing joined the team.
The DEB-Team started the game much better than the day before and Düsseldorf's Daniel Fischbuch (1st) almost took the lead in the first 60 seconds. However, it only took a little longer to get to this point. First Sebastian Uvira from Cologne had another chance. But when Augsburg's John Rogl maneuvered the puck deep into the opponent's third, Eisenschmid took over, created space and cheekily put the puck under the crossbar from an acute angle.
In the middle section there were opportunities on both sides. Brückmann showed an outstanding performance Parade and saved his team from equalizing. But Toni Söderholm's team also had the second goal on their sticks more often, whether the future Mannheim player Korbinian Holzer, Munich's Maximilian Kastner, Mannheim's Stefan Loibl or Eder, they were all close to scoring. The DEB-Selection in three outnumbered situations in the second round.
The final third opened that up DEBteam with a combination via Eder and Kastner, which Schütz completed with his first international goal. Team Belarus subsequently looked for a way forward, but only appeared dangerously in front of Brückmann in exceptional cases. Ultimately, the German team managed to secure their lead over time.
After the final test match of the World Cup preparation comes the DEB-Selection together again on Tuesday in Nuremberg. Then the immediate preparation for the tournament in Latvia begins under the specifications and test procedures of the world association IIHF. The departure to Riga in a charter plane is planned for May 15th. After a mandatory individual quarantine until the evening of May 18th, the Söderholm team will be allowed on the ice at the World Cup venue for the first time on May 19th. Italy will be the German team's first World Cup opponent on May 21st (15.15:1 p.m./SPORTXNUMX).
National coach Toni Söderholm: “The feeling of victory helps us and is very good for all of us. If we put all the facts on the table, we are on track. In some tactical areas we are okay, in some we are missing training sessions, but we still have enough time. It was a performance that shows strong character; we blocked a lot of shots. There's still a lot to improve on, but from the feeling on the bench, it was a strong win. We have to become even more efficient with the disc and play deeper from the neutral zone more cleanly.”
Felix Brückmann: “It was a lot of hard work, but compared to Friday we got off to a good start. We wanted to show more intensity, and we succeeded. It was a close game, but it was also a lot of fun. Overall, we played very well defensively and blocked a lot of shots, everyone gave it their all. We really wanted to win and go into the World Cup with a good feeling.”
Justin Schütz: "We didn't concede much from the start. Of course, we still need to improve our chances, but as long as we don't concede a goal, we'll still win the game. It's very important to go to Riga with a win, because there's not a game left until the World Cup starts. A success like this is really good with the results before. It was a relatively easy goal, but it's a great feeling and good for your confidence. A good experience that you can take with you now."
All fotos: City-Press
Here are the statistics of the game:
https://www.gamepitch.de/playbyplay/?gameId=c4bbd783-a484-4e7a-a20c-f4eeee731455&divisionId=7355