They have to "bring their best game to the ice," said national coach Harold Kreis before the game against Denmark. The German national ice hockey team was far from that, but in the end they were able to celebrate their first victory at the World Championships in Finland. The selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) won 6-4 and thus prevented the worst start to the tournament in more than 25 years.
This means that they still have every chance of reaching the quarter-finals. Already this Friday (19.20 CET/Sport1) against Austria, the German team can take the next step. They must win this and the rest of Sunday's games against Hungary and Tuesday's France to advance to the knockout stages.
Woke up in third two
On Thursday evening, however, it did not look like a happy ending. The first period against venomous but playfully limited Danes was the weakest in the course of the tournament. Except for a post shot by Moritz Seider, little succeeded.
To make matters worse, captain Moritz Müller had deflected a shot from Matias Lassen into his own goal in the third minute. It wasn't until the second period that the Germans woke up, ran more, played more physically and constricted the Danes in such a way that they only hit the puck out.
But even that didn't help at some point, JJ Perterka, Alexander Ehl and Moritz Müller turned the 0:1 into a 3:1, only shortly before the end of the third the Danes came through Mathias Bau Hansen to the lucky follow-up goal. Also out of nowhere, Christian Wejse equalised in the final third. But Jonas Müller struck back immediately, Marcel Noebels increased the empty goal to 5:3. Wejse shortened it again to 4:5, but Nico Sturm then also made everything clear with an "empty net goal".