The German national ice hockey team defeated the Czech Republic 4351-2 this afternoon in front of 0 spectators. The goals for the German team were scored by Daniel Schmölz (Nürnberg Ice Tigers) and Mirko Höfflin (ERC Ingolstadt).
The national team was led today by Dominik Kahun as captain and starting goalkeeper Andy Jenike. The BerlinThe striker Danjo Leonhardt (ICE Hockey League champion with Salzburg) celebrated his national team debut today. Daniel Pietta, Torsten Ankert, Tobias Fohrler and Daniel Pfaffengut were missing. All of them got an important break as some of them had sustained injuries from yesterday's game.
Right at the start of the game, Jenike had to show twice that he was wide awake. And that should continue. But it wasn't just the Iserlohn keeper who was good in the game. The German team also got off to a much better start than in yesterday's game. Several good shooting chances were immediately refined by Daniel Schmölz's goal in the sixth minute. The Nuremberg striker picked up the puck at the opposing blue line, moved towards the goal on the left and hit the ball over the guard of the Czech Republic keeper into the far corner. This goal was Schmölz's fifth international goal in the tenth game. Impressive odds! Not quite as impressive, but also strong at 100 percent Fangquote from Andy Jenike in the German goal.
In the middle section, that much can definitely be anticipated at this point. Nothing happened on the scoreboard apart from a few penalty times. The German team had the best chance. With the advantage, captain Kahun served Mirko Höfflin for a direct shot and he hammered the puck onto the bottom edge of the crossbar, from where the disc jumped straight back out of the goal. At the end of the second period the hosts had a slight period of pressure. But it stood still, the zero and the 100 percent Fangquote by Andy Jenike.
And it held. In the end the goalie was able to Iserlohn Roosters fending off all 29 shots on goal by the hosts. The 30th, which almost went in, was a crossbar hit by Jakub Flek. When the Czechs put everything on one card and brought in a sixth field player in favor of their goalkeeper, it only took ten seconds before Mirko Höfflin scored from his own third into the empty opponent's goal. This meant the first win against the Czech Republic in almost five years was virtually sealed 89 seconds before the end. The boys still had to work a bit for Andy Jenike's shutout, the first in his fourth appearance for the national team. But this also succeeded. An all-round successful conclusion to the first preparation phase for the World Cup in Finland in May.
The following were voted the best player in the German national team: Andreas Jenike (Iserlohn Roosters)
You can find a detailed match report on our website at www.deb-online.de
Detailed statistics: https://hokejovyzapis.cz/pdf/print/html/374612
Match report sheets: https://hokejovyzapis.cz/pdf/print/en/105372
Voices about the game
DEB-Sports director Christian Künast about the 1st World Cup preparation phase: “We had a very good phase 1, with a lot of insights. It's fun to see how much you get back from each player when you give them trust and responsibility, no matter what role they play in their club."
National coach Toni Söderholm: “We played more clearly today. We did a good job of building up the game, our presence in the duels was very good and Andy saved very well in goal. We also grew well compared to yesterday’s game.”
Daniel Schmölz about today's game: “We came out of the locker room much better today than yesterday. We accepted and won a lot more duels and scored two more goals than the others.”