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John Peterka from Germany in action
Photo: Pavel Golovkin / dpa
Germany's national ice hockey team is surprisingly in the semi-finals of the World Championship against Finland and Latvia. The team of new national coach Harold Kreis won the quarter-finals against Switzerland 3-1 (1-0, 2-1, 0-0) in Riga and thus have the chance to win Germany's first World Cup medal since 1953 at the weekend. In the semi-finals on Saturday in Tampere, Germany will meet the USA again.
Maximilian Kastner (7th minute) of the German champions EHC Red Bull Munich and the two NHL forwards John-Jason Peterka (38th) and Nico Sturm (39th) scored the success against Switzerland, who had finished first in Group B and had gone into the game favored.
Also in Riga in 2021 and at the 2010 World Championships, the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) had prevailed against Switzerland in the World Cup quarter-finals. The tournaments ended in fourth place. In 1953, the DEB team had last won silver at the World Championships, but at that time only four nations had participated.
The DEB can already look back on a successful World Cup debut with Kreis as Toni Söderholm's successor. Despite 15 cancellations due to injury, Kreis not only confidently made it to the quarter-finals after initially three defeats against top nations, but also qualified directly for the 2026 Olympics in Milan by reaching the semi-finals.
jan/dpa