National coach Toni Söderholm is usually not one to comment publicly on referees.

But on Tuesday in Helsinki it was no different.

His side had just lost their last World Cup group game against Switzerland 3-4 after a penalty shoot-out, for which they received a point that was enough for second place in the final standings.

So Söderholm was in a good mood, but there were two scenes that stuck with him.

First Fabrice checked Herzog Samuel Soramies into the gang from behind, then Denis Malgin elbowed Leon Gawanke in the face.

Both times a German stayed where he was, and Gawanke even bled.

But the referees didn't care, they didn't even award a penalty.

The action against Soramies - according to Söderholm "one of the most dangerous checks I've seen in recent years" - there were just two minutes.

"A huge mistake," complained the national coach and basically stated: "The same thing is always said: protect the player.

But we don't."

It was less surprising that Germany and Switzerland were in high spirits.

"You could see from the emotions that we are neighboring countries, it was very intense," said striker Marcel Noebels about the 29th World Cup duel between the old rivals.

This time it wasn't a knockout game like last year, but just a group game, but one that showed what has become of the two nations.

Neither is one of the classic greats in world hockey, and yet they finished the group in first and second place.

Of course, not all world stars compete in Finland, of course both benefited from the exclusion of Russia, but it's worth seeing what they show here.

The Swiss won all seven games, the Germans five.

The Swiss had already experienced their biggest holiday at the weekend.

Andres Ambühl played his 120th World Cup game and replaced the German defender legend Udo Kießling as World Cup record player.

The current is already the 17th world championship for the man from Davos, and his record game was one of the highlights of his long career: The entire hall stood up before that, Luc Tardif, President of the World Federation IIHF, came by especially for an honor.

And then this game: a roaring 6:3 against Canada in front of thousands of Swiss fans, whose team looked like a gold medalist.

On Tuesday there was a lot less going on in the hall, the classic weekend tourists were gone again.

Which didn't stop the 38-year-old Ambühl from chasing the first shot into the goal.

In general, everything went too fast for the Germans at the beginning, who needed a few minutes to get into the game.

But they have one weapon above all in this tournament: their power play.

It continued like this against Switzerland: First number, first goal, Kai Wissmann scored to make it 1-1 in the twelfth minute.

And already it was a different game, now the Swiss couldn't find any solutions against the German forecheck, before the end of the third Stefan Loibl deflected a shot to make it 2-1.

From the middle section it was an open game.

Pius Suter and Denis Malgin used two for the Swiss, who were lucky not to be sent to the penalty box more often and for longer.

But instead of quarreling with fate, the Germans continued to play forward and made it 3:3 in the last third after a strong solo by Matthias Plachta.

It stayed that way: one point and second place.

Since the defeat in the penalty shootout was to get over.

Especially since the 16 points in seven games represent an all-time record for a German team.

"Great," said Noebels, before qualifying: "On Thursday nobody will ask how we played in the preliminary round." Then the quarter-finals are coming up.