Young star Moritz Seider looked frustrated into space, national coach Toni Söderholm had to swallow hard.

For Germany's ice hockey team, hopes for the first World Cup medal in 69 years were dashed prematurely by three goals conceded with a man down.

With the 1: 4 (0: 2, 0: 1, 1: 1) against the Czech Republic on Thursday in the quarterfinals at the World Cup in Finland it was over for the German team, who lost their chances with penalties.

Söderholm nevertheless “very proud

"The disappointment is huge.

I already had other plans," said coach Söderholm.

A year after the semi-final coup in Riga, his selection was unable to use the tailwind of the strong preliminary round.

Like three years ago, the extremely efficient Czechs came to a dead end in the quarter-finals, Seider's goal in the 54th minute came too late and was not enough.

After all, the DEB selection had previously corrected the disappointing impression of the early failure at the Olympics with the best World Cup preliminary round of a German team.

"The step we took back at the Olympics, we've now taken it forward again," said defending veteran Korbinian Holzer.

He was "very proud" of his protégés, Söderholm also confirmed.

Earlier damper

After five victories in the seven group games, many spoke of the precious metal.

But an early penalty for the Munich striker Yasin Ehliz and the well-played number hit by the Czech NHL star David Pastrnak in the 3rd minute had an immediate dampening effect.

Söderholm had suspected that the twelve-time world champion would be a difficult test despite an unconvincing preliminary round.

For the Finn, the game was a special reunion with his compatriot Kari Jalonen.

The new Czech national coach was once Söderholm's club coach in Helsinki and later something of a mentor.

"It's nothing personal for both of us," Söderholm assured.

And yet the 44-year-old would have loved to spoil his former teacher's tournament debut.

"A Hard Blow"

But the Czechs, reinforced with nine NHL professionals, also used the second majority coldly.

Roman Cervenka completed a fine combination to make it 2-0 (11th) when Düsseldorf striker Daniel Fischbuch was in the penalty box.

It was "a hard blow", admitted Söderholm.

The Germans had previously had the fewest penalties of all teams in the tournament and thus rarely got themselves into trouble by being outnumbered.

Even in the middle of the first third there was little to suggest that the German team could improve on the previous record of only four wins in 31 World Cup games against the Czech selection.

The revenge for the bitter end three years ago at 1: 5 in the World Cup quarterfinals in Bratislava was a long way off.

Reichel to the post

Only at the end of the first period did the Germans have chances to score, Lukas Reichel only hit the post (19th).

"If you just don't score goals, you can't win a game.

That's how it was," said the attacker from the second-rate North American professional league AHL.

The Czechs were tactically well adjusted by coach Jalonen, and at times constricted the German team in their own third.

Even the first majority in the middle of the second part of the game was unsuccessful for the DEB selection.

“We had too much respect”

Instead, the next penalty and the next blow to the neck followed.

Defender Holzer had to leave, David Krejci scored to make it 3-0 (33rd).

The fact that polar bear attacker Marcel Noebels failed again shortly afterwards at the post matched the used day of the Germans.

"We had too much respect," admitted young NHL star Seider before the final third.

Nine minutes before the end, Söderholm took a full risk, taking keeper Philipp Grubauer off the ice in favor of another attacker when he was outnumbered.

The reward was Seider's long-range goal to make it 1:3.

But the turning point was no longer successful.

Jiri Smejkal (59th) hit the empty goal.