Ice Hockey World Cup: Germany defeats Austria

Germany achieved its second mandatory victory in a row at the Ice Hockey World Cup. The chance of reaching the quarterfinals is good. The next win is needed on Sunday against outsiders Hungary.

19 May 2023

From: dpa/sn

Germany's national ice hockey team has finally set course for the quarter-finals with its second mandatory victory within 24 hours at the World Championships in Finland and Latvia. On Friday, national coach Harold Kreis' selection won 4:2 (2:1, 1:0, 1:1) against Austria and can complete their desired return to the last eight in the two remaining preliminary round games against the outsiders Hungary and France .

One evening after the important 6:4 in the all-or-nothing game against probably the toughest competitor Denmark, Stanley Cup winner Nico Sturm (5th/59th minute) and Parker Tuomie (17th) from Straubing met in Tampere Tigers and Wojciech Stachowiak (34th) from ERC Ingolstadt for the German team. Bernd Wolf (12th) from HC Lugano and Lukas Haudum from KAC Klagenfurt (54th) were successful for outsiders Austria.

Austria and Germany fought a thrilling battle. © ANSA / Tibor Illyes

“I think it wasn't our best game today. We played well at times, but at times we made it too easy for the Austrians,” said captain Moritz Müller. Coach Kreis classified it Sport1 as a “tough game”: “Austria forced us to play a type of ice hockey that we don’t prefer,” said the coach.

All or nothing game for Austria

The selection of the German Ice Hockey Association continues on Sunday (15.20:XNUMX p.m.) against Hungary. Then the third win in a row is a must. Austria, on the other hand, will meet Finland on Saturday before the all-important match against Hungary on Monday: it's about nothing less than staying in the league. Austria is currently bottom of the table with one point, Hungary is second to bottom with two points.