In the group game round of the Ice Hockey World Championship, the German team led by Leon Gawanke (r) lost out to the USA. © Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/dpa
Germany suffers its third unfortunate defeat at the Ice Hockey World Championships. After his playoff exit in the NHL, Leon Draisaitl could strengthen the German team. Now there are two days off.
Tampere - Germany's national ice hockey team continues to learn the hard way at the World Cup and is under enormous pressure early on after the third defeat in the third game.
Another strong performance in Tampere in the 2:3 (0:0, 2:1, 0:2) against the USA again did not lead to points. Goals from Samuel Soramies (31st minute) of the Augsburg Panthers and Justin Schütz (40th) of the German champions EHC Red Bull Munich were not enough. AHL pro Ronnie Attard (26th), Sean Farrell of the Montreal Canadiens (46th) and Matt Coronato of the Calgary Flames (55th) scored for the favored US team.
"It hurts. Now we have the shotgun on our chest," said NHL defenseman Moritz Seider in view of the pressure situation at MagentaSport: "Now we must not lose the thread. Now we have to find a switch to go in a little dirty. We have to make sure that we continue to march with a broad chest."
Defeats against Sweden and Finland
Previously, the selection of national coach Harold Kreis had already lost unluckily against the title favorites Sweden (0:1) and Finland (3:4). "I think we played the third good game, maybe the best, and unfortunately we didn't reward ourselves again," captain Moritz Müller told Sport1: "The most important thing is that we take the positives with us."
After a tough start and two days off, Germany must win against Denmark on Thursday (19:20 CET/Sport1 and MagentaSport) to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
It is still unclear whether the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation will be strengthened by NHL star Leon Draisaitl at the end of the week. The 27-year-old world-class player was eliminated on Sunday (local time) with his Edmonton Oilers in the NHL playoffs and could now travel to Finland retrospectively.
DEB sporting director Christian Künast left open on the sidelines of the game against the USA whether there had already been contact. "If there's something to report, we'll report it," Kuenast told MagentaSport ahead of the game. "There are a lot of things to do. We are very meticulous in the background. We're ready for anything."
Draisaitl's attacking power could be well used by the German team. The German team also had a hard time scoring goals against the USA, despite having significantly more shots on goal than recently. In the NHL season that ended for him, exceptional forward Draisaitl collected a total of 146 scorer points and would be the world's biggest star at his first World Cup in four years.
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Help from Mental Coach
After the two unfortunate defeats at the start, the DEB selection had also sought psychological help from a mental coach. In addition, something had to change in terms of personnel. As announced, national coach Kreis changed the forward lines a bit.
In addition, Manuel Wiederer played for the first time at this tournament. The Berlin striker replaced Daniel Fischbuch, who has also been disappointing so far. In defence, Leon Gawanke, who only arrived in Tampere on Sunday, made his debut after his playoff exit with Manitoba Moose in the North American AHL.
The changes worked, Germany started highly superior. The DEB selection hit the crossbar a few times, but not into the net. Germany was also too unfortunate in several overtime games. The Americans, on the other hand, immediately took significantly more shots on goal in their first overtime situation in the second period and also took the lead. Defender Kai Wissmann unluckily deflected a harmless shot into his own net.
USA turns game
Ironically, in the next outnumbered game, the overdue first German goal was finally scored: Soramies completed an energetic push by captain Moritz Müller to equalize. Four seconds before the end of the middle section, the fourth row, which has been strikingly strong so far in this tournament, took the lead. The 22-year-old Munich shooter spied the puck into the net during a solo effort on the US goal.
In the final third, the USA then put more pressure on and turned the game into a very fortunate victory through NHL professionals Farrell and Coronato. Dpa