Despite a strong performance of will, the German national ice hockey team has not come any closer to qualifying for the quarter-finals at the world championships.

In the duel with Finland, the last title holder before the Corona interruption, the selection of national coach Toni Söderholm was defeated 1: 2 (0: 1, 1: 0, 0: 1).

Marc Heinrich

Sports editor.

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    In terms of speed, precision and tough duels, she was not quite up to the 2019 champions in her fifth preliminary round match and thus lost three more important points for the second time in a row.

    "Despite the defeat, we played a good game," said Leon Gawanke later, who stated that it would have "been deserved" if there had been something countable for the performance. 

    Söderholm, who grew up in Finland and has now made his home in Munich, switched ranks for the game on Saturday evening against his home country for the first time and plays with seven defenders and 13 forwards.

    Mathias Niederberger was once again trusted in goal in the arena in Riga.

    Germans are not shocked

    But Lukas Reichel was missing: The top talent of the Eisbären Berlin, who is considered a future German professional overseas, was canceled because he was still troubled by the consequences of the check against his head from the game against Kazakhstan and Söderholm did not Wanted to take risks;

    In addition, striker Lean Bergmann and defender Marcel Brandt were not in the squad.

    For their first World Cup appearances, on the other hand, the strikers Andreas Eder, Daniel Fischbuch and John-Jason Peterka, who stood out with several successful scenes.

    The change had the consequence that Söderholm changed two of four formations.

    The “Mannheim” attack (Eisenschmid, Loibl, Plachta) stayed together, as did the “Landshuter” (Kühnhackl, Krämmer, Rieder).

    When Moritz Seider had to sit on the bench to take a two-minute penalty for a cross check, it only took eight seconds for the Finns to benefit: Anton Lundell took the lead (7th minute).

    Impressed or even shocked, the Germans did not react to the deficit.

    Quite the opposite was the case.

    The lesson they had learned from the mistake as quickly as possible was that they would only survive if they showed the highest level of discipline.

    From then on, Leo Pföderl often claimed the target in fore-checking, thus gaining space and time for his colleagues.

    Moritz Seider (13th) and Tobias Rieder (18th) gave two counter opportunities against the Finns, who were difficult to lure defensively from the reserve.

    The Finns are very efficient

    The equalization then resulted from a clever combination of the two defenders Korbinian Holzer and Moritz Müller, who ventured deep into the opposing half: Captain Müller irritated with a dangling goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora, who reacted with a wobble of his glove and had no chance when Holzer shot in from a distance to 1: 1 (28th). It was already the second tournament goal, the veteran who was last under contract in Russia, who will then be the Adler Mannheim in the summer.

    In this phase of the fast-paced conflict, the Germans were equal. Opportunities to add more were also available in the power play through clever puck conquests after offensive face-offs, but the advances either lacked accuracy or a stick blocked the pass path at the last second. Efficiency, on the other hand, is one of the strengths of the Finns - also at this event.

    When they had just been outnumbered, Lundell shifted the fastest, served the better positioned Arttu Ruotsalainen, who did not hesitate and let Niederberger get out (52nd). And although Söderholm took full risk in the end and took Niederberger out in favor of another outfield player, the Germans could not strike back again. For them it was the 33rd defeat in the 55th test of strength with Finland. For the time being, it occupies fourth place in the table in group B.

    The United States had prepared for the meeting with the Germans on Monday with a narrow victory in the afternoon. Team USA won 2: 1 (1: 0, 1: 0, 0: 1) against Norway and, thanks to their fourth success in a row, are now on course for the knockout round with twelve points. Thanks to the first double-digit victory of the tournament, the Kazakhs are also in a good position as third: They outclassed the southern European outsiders 11: 3 (1: 0, 2: 1, 8: 2) and can now show ten points. One more than the Germans.