After an exciting preliminary round of the Ice Hockey World Championship, the DEB team is fully focused on the quarter-finals.
Coach Söderholm doesn't care about the opponent.
Helsinki - On paper it was a defeat, 3:4 (2:1, 0:2, 1:0, 0:0) after a penalty shootout for Germany against Switzerland was on the board, but who would win or lose after extra time , no longer had any significance for the overall situation.
The 3:3 draw after 60 minutes had confirmed the table of the preliminary round group A at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Finland at the top.
First: Switzerland with 20 out of a possible 21 points, which underlines the potential of the squad with seven NHL players.
Second: Germany, who embarrassed their neighbors the most and will now meet Czech Republic, third in Group B, in the quarter-finals on Thursday (26 May).
Immediately after the game, national coach Toni Söderholm was still indifferent to the then unknown opponent, with the twelve-time world champion a tough chunk awaits the DEB team.
The goal couldn't be clearer: "It doesn't matter - we're playing and we're trying to win.
And then we'll see."
DEB coach Söderholm dissatisfied with the referee's performance
Coach Söderholm was back on the gang against Switzerland after suffering health problems the day before.
Söderholm also looked figuratively cold because he did not agree with the performance of the main referees Linus Ohlund (Sweden) and Peter Stano (Slovakia).
They had let a serious foul (Malgin on Gawanke) go completely and handed another (Herzog on Soramies) a penalty that was too light.
Twice Swiss checks went against German heads, Soramies and Gawanke drove off the ice with blood on their faces.
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The German team's ice hockey match against Switzerland was hard-fought.
© picture alliance/dpa/KEYSTONE/Peter Schneider
"Catastrophic," scolded Söderholm.
"We have four or five coaching training courses before the tournament, we are told which fouls shouldn't happen, and that's exactly what it is." 1-1 (12').
Kai Wissmann scored one more man after four seconds, later Stefan Loibl deflected a shot from Moritz Seider to make it 2-1 (16').
DEB team still needs to work on the penalty shootout
In the end, that didn't help, Switzerland turned the game to a 3-2 lead, but then had to bow to Mathias Plachta - The Mannheimer put a spectacular solo on the ice (48th): "I pretty much knew where the between my legs."
Despite the defeat, Söderholm can be satisfied - the only flaw: the penalty shootout, where Loibl, Plachta, Noebels and Fischbuch didn't score.
Nevertheless, we are confident in the quarter-finals, sporting director Christian Künast even said: "It was our best preliminary round ever."
