This Monday, the German national ice hockey team begins preparations for the World Championships in Finland. National coach Toni Söderholm's team travels to Chomutov, Czech Republic with 24 players to complete five training sessions and two test matches against the host team. The games take place on Thursday evening (April 14th, 17 p.m., live on Sport1 and MagentaSport) and Friday afternoon (April 15th, 15 p.m., live on MagentaSport).
In the selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (DEB) includes some players with plenty of international and World Cup experience, including Daniel Pietta (112 international matches/4 World Cup appearances), Dominik Kahun (71 LS/5xWorld Cup), Torsten Ankert (41 LS/3xWorld Cup), Fabio Wagner (41 LS/1xWorld Cup) and Niklas Treutle (40 LS/3xWorld Cup). However, there are also nine World Cup preparation debutants, including Nikita Quapp, Luca Münzenberger, Leon Hüttl, Alexander Blank, Alexander Karachun, Justin Volek, Julian Napravnik, Samuel Soramies and Tim Fleischer.
The coaching team put together by Toni Söderholm consists of the head coach of the Lausitzer Füchse, Petteri Väkiparta (44 years old) and the former captain of the Finnish national team Raimo Helminen (58) as assistant coach, Ilpo Kauhanan (48), who was already there in 2021, as goalkeeping coach and Erik Elenz (University of Vermont) as video coach.
Toni Söderholm, DEB-National coach: "It is important to me at the beginning that we have international experience in the coaching team. Raimo Helminen brings a lot of that with him. Petteri Väkiparta knows German ice hockey very well and has previously worked with us in the DEB employed. Erik Elenz is a young aspiring video coach on the University of Vermont ice hockey team. He does a lot of work and can support all the coaches. The position of the video cache is incredibly important at the World Cup tournaments and we have found a very motivated reinforcement in Erik, who has already worked with several professional trainers in recent years.”
| Pos | No. | Name | First Name | Club 2021/22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | 30 | Jenike | Andy | Iserlohner EC |
| GK | 1 | Quapp | Nikita | Krefeld Pinguine |
| GK | 31 | Treutle | Niklas | Nürnberg Ice Tigers |
| D | 81 | Ankert | Torsten | Iserlohner EC |
| D | 37 | Bender | Tim | Nürnberg Ice Tigers |
| D | 88 | Fohrler | Tobias | HC Ambri-Piotta |
| D | 7 | Hüttl | Leon | ERC Ingolstadt |
| D | 70 | Huss | Johannes | Schwenninger Wild Wings |
| D | 75 | Münzenberger | Luca | University of Vermont |
| D | 82 | Rogl | John | Augsburger Panther |
| D | 38 | Wagner | Fabio | ERC Ingolstadt |
| F | 24 | Blank | Alexander | Krefeld Pinguine |
| F | 12 | Braun | Laurin | Krefeld Pinguine |
| F | 19 | Fleischer | Tim | Nürnberg Ice Tigers |
| F | 61 | Höfflin | Mirko | ERC Ingolstadt |
| F | 10 | Jentzsch | Taro | Iserlohner EC |
| F | 72 | Kahun | Dominik | SC Bern |
| F | 94 | Karachun | Alexander | Schwenninger Wild Wings |
| F | 51 | Napravnik | Julian | Minnesota State University |
| F | 78 | Pfaffengut | Daniel | Schwenninger Wild Wings |
| F | 86 | Pietta | Daniel | ERC Ingolstadt |
| F | 25 | Schmölz | Daniel | Nürnberg Ice Tigers |
| F | 26 | Soramies | Samuel | ERC Ingolstadt |
| F | 45 | Volek | Justin | Krefeld Pinguine |
After the games in the Czech Republic, there will be short training camps and games in Rosenheim (April 19th - 23rd), Dresden (April 26th - 30th) and Schwenningen (May 05th - 08th) in the preparation phases two, three and four. Tickets for all five home games are still sold www.deb-online.de/tickets bookable. MagentaSport broadcasts all games live, Sport1 broadcasts a total of four on free TV.