DEB team meets Italy - quarterfinals very close
Created: 05/20/2022, 04:17
Marc Michaelis (r) meets Italy with the DEB team.
© Martin Meissner/AP/dpa
One more victory - and the quarter-finals at the World Championships in Finland can only theoretically be taken away from the national ice hockey team.
Success is a must against outsiders Italy.
Helsinki – With or without NHL striker Tim Stützle, with or without the two newcomers Leon Gawanke and Lukas Reichel – anything but a success for the German national ice hockey team against Italy would be a surprise.
If the mandatory victory succeeds on Friday (3:20 p.m. / Sport1 and MagentaSport), the German national team will almost certainly be in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
It is expected that striker Reichel and defender Gawanke will make their first appearances in the tournament a day after their arrival in Finland on Thursday.
"I do think that things are looking pretty good for both of them," said national coach Toni Söderholm on Thursday evening when the 1-0 win over Denmark was the third preliminary round win and the excitement was over.
Additional challenge from fire
With the fire breaking out in the hall during the warm-up and the start of the game being postponed by a good hour and a half, the fourth of seven preliminary round games had been given an additional challenge.
The German team solved the problem thanks to a goal from AHL striker Marc Michaelis (33rd minute).
"We just have to play smarter.
We have to recognize the situations in the games, to play more boringly," demanded Söderholm after the unspectacular but extremely important three points won.
Like Michaelis, Reichel and Gawanke, whose season ended with their teams on Sunday, also play in the second-class North American professional league AHL.
Unlike the duo, Ottawa striker Stützle seems unlikely to play on Friday after his injury from the game against France (3-2) on Monday evening.
"We'll have to wait and see how he's doing in the morning and then we'll talk to the doctors.
But we will not endanger the player's health," said Söderholm.
Stützle's NHL team Ottawa Senators is also involved in the decision.
more on the subject
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DEB team wins exciting World Cup duel with Slovakia
NHL pros, goalkeeper duo, captain: World Cup players in focus
The fourth in the 2021 World Cup and Olympic tenth has now won three in a row and only lost the opening game against record world champions and defending champions Canada.
The Italians, on the other hand, are without a win after four games and are worried about remaining in the world group.
A year ago at the World Cup in Riga, a 9: 4 goal festival against Italians, who were plagued by corona at the time, initiated a successful World Cup in which a medal was only just missed.
This time, with a success against the world number 16.
the place in the knockout stage is all but secured.
In the two final preliminary round games against Kazakhstan on Sunday and against Switzerland on Tuesday, without the great pressure of having to qualify for the quarter-finals, it would then be all about the starting position.
dpa