The German national ice hockey team narrowly lost the final preliminary round game against Team USA 2:3. The goalscorers for Germany were Patrick Hager and Tom Kühnhackl. This concludes DEB-Selection from Group A in third place. Next Tuesday we will face Slovakia in the quarter-final qualifiers. The game is expected to start at 12:10 p.m. Beijing time (5:10 a.m. German time) - the official schedule for the qualifying round will be announced shortly.
Squad against Team USA: Aus den Birken starts in goal, offensive lines changed
For the final game of preliminary group A, national coach Toni Söderholm made a few changes: Danny aus den Birken made his first appearance at these winter games in goal, while Felix Brückmann was available as a backup. Söderholm also changed all four offensive formations, which brought Lean Bergmann into the squad. Daniel Pietta and David Wolf received a break for this. Defender Marco Nowak was still unavailable due to injury.
The national team got off to a perfect start. In the first power play, Matthias Plachta passed to Patrick Hager, who was standing unmarked in front of the goal - 1-0 after exactly two minutes. The USA also scored in the first power play and shortly afterwards equalized through Steven Kampfer (5th) with a shot from the blue line. Afterwards, a real exchange of blows developed between both teams: it went back and forth, hard checks were handed out. especially the DEB-Selection presented itself as a compact unit.
It remained in the second section too DEB-Selection continues to be combative and dangerous. But the Americans also picked up the pace again. Out of the hustle and bustle, Team USA managed to score the lead through Matt Knies (25th), who knew how to take advantage of the confusing situation in front of the German goal. Shortly before the end of the second third, the German team built up pressure again with the advantage, but another goal failed to materialize.
At the beginning of the final section that survived DEB-Team another outnumbered situation, Danny aus den Birken was able to distinguish himself with important saves. Just when this difficult situation was over, Team USA increased the lead to 3-1 through Nathan Smith (43) after losing the puck in their own zone. The German team was unimpressed and increased the intensity again. That led to Tom Kühnhackl's goal (58th) directly in front of the goal. Then she threw DEB-Selection everything forward and took Aus den Birken off the ice for a sixth fielder. Despite good chances, the equalizer would not fall.