Olympics 2022 – Ice Hockey: DEB-Team loses to USA – Quarterfinal qualifier against Slovakia

Improved, but not good enough: Despite their strongest tournament performance to date, the German national ice hockey team ended the Olympic preliminary round with their second defeat. In the 2: 3 (1: 1, 0: 1, 1: 1) against the USA, the team of national coach Toni Söderholm started furiously, gave everything until the end, but has to improve even more for the fight for the medals. Because now things are getting serious in Beijing.

On Tuesday it’s: win or fly. In the play-off for the quarter-finals, Slovakia is the opponent after third place in Group A. Four years ago, Pyeongchang’s silver miracle began with a 2-1 overtime win against Switzerland in the first knockout game. The rest is sports history. However, another bankruptcy would already mean the end of all dreams of renewed precious metal.

With ten heroes from 2018, the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) played more straightforward and purposeful 28 hours after the 3-2 victory against China – but not effectively enough.

Munich’s Patrick Hager (2nd) and Tom Kühnhackl (58th) scored the goals in the Wukesong Sports Center. Steven Kampfer (5th), Matt Knies (25th) and Nathan Smith (43rd) scored for the USA, who qualified directly for the round of eight by finishing first in their group.

Germany uses the first majority directly

Against the young US team with 14 college players, who had previously won 4-2 in the prestige duel against Canada, the German team started with a lot of speed and drive towards the goal – and was rewarded early on. Hager scored in the first majority after assists from Matthias Plachta and Dominik Kahun, a co-production of three silver medalists.

After a stupid penalty by Tom Kühnhackl, however, the equalizer came immediately. Somewhat surprisingly, silver hero Danny from the birches stood in the gate. The 36-year-old has had a rather weak season at Red Bull Munich so far, and his nomination for Beijing was controversial.

Cheered on by “Eis-Oma” Claudia Pechstein and other German athletes in the stands, the DEB selection played much more aggressively and gained respect with hard checks. It got loud when defender Marcel Brandt was lying on the ice after a puck hit. “I’ll rip your head off,” shouted Korbinian Holzer in the direction of the US players.

From the birches loses his bat before the 1:2

Especially bitter: Before the 1:2, Aus den Birken lost his bat and couldn’t get hold of it properly again. Söderholm demanded video evidence of the goalkeeper’s disability – but the goal was not withdrawn.

After the weak performances in the first two games, Söderholm had mixed up his attacking lines. David Wolf and Daniel Pietta stayed outside. The injured defender Marco Nowak was absent again.

Eurosport expert Patrick Ehelechner sees the German team on the right track despite the next bankruptcy: “Despite the defeat, it was a step in the right direction. Germany was more aggressive, more present and defensively more stable than in the previous games. Now it’s do or die! “

He is confident about the play-off duel against Slovakia. “Respect is appropriate, but you don’t have to be afraid. Maybe the Slovaks are better for us – they are a little more vulnerable defensively and not as aggressive in the forecheck as the US boys. That plays into our hands more. Now we need an absolute one Top performance,” says Ehelechner.

Eurosport Podcast: Hambüchen & Friends with Patrick Ehelechner

(SID)