Germany’s ice hockey C selection has trembled to an opening victory at the Germany Cup in Krefeld. The inexperienced selection of national coach Toni Söderholm won 3:2 (1:1, 1:1, 0:0) after extra time against Denmark.
Daniel Schmölz scored the decisive goal in the fourth minute of overtime. The man from Nuremberg had already scored in regulation time together with Marc Michaelis from the Swiss team SCL Langnau. Anders Koch from the Aalborg Pirates and Nicolai Meyer from Red Bull Salzburg were successful for Denmark.
The scenery in the Yayla Arena in Krefeld was disappointing. Just around 800 spectators wanted to see the opening game of the German talents. Söderholm had deliberately dispensed with a number of regular employees. Surprisingly, the already very inexperienced squad was missing Marco Nowak from the Eisbären Berlin, the most experienced player in the squad, which included ten Germany Cup debutants and three national team newcomers.
Talents and returnees in focus
The focus of the national coach in Krefeld is more on the talents or returnees like Frankfurt’s Dominik Bokk and Cologne’s Maximilian Kammerer, who after good performances recently in the German Ice Hockey League were given another chance with regard to the World Cup in Tampere next May. Even then, Germany meets Denmark again in the preliminary round.
Expectations were particularly high for the exceptional talent Bokk, who despite his contract with the Carolina Hurricanes is still waiting for his NHL debut. The 22-year-old, who is currently the third-best DEL scorer as a loan player from Löwen Frankfurt, did not initially do any self-promotion like many others. Since little came from the Danes trained by former DEL player Heinz Ehlers, the backdrop suited the manageable level on the ice. In terms of speed and intensity, there was still a lot missing.
Germany has the opportunity to improve on Saturday (5:30 p.m./Sport1 and MagentaSport) against Austria and on Sunday (2:30 p.m./MagentaSport) against Slovakia, who came third in the Olympics.
The German lead was favored by a mishap: Danish defender Koch deflected a Michaelis shot into his own net, but compensated for this a little later by equalizing with a wonderful finish from the blue line into the top corner. Goalkeeper Dustin Strahlmeier from the Grizzlys Wolfsburg was blocked from view.
Weak level in the final third
In the middle section, the German selection started with problems and only became significantly more dominant after the 1:2, which fell in the last second of a manpower game. The reward for the strongest phase of the game up to that point was the deserved equalizer from Nuremberg’s Schmölz. Meanwhile, the Söderholm team failed to score more goals.
The few spectators then only saw cramp. In the final section, the level dropped to a minimum. Opportunities just happened by chance.
