First World Cup victory over Canada in 25 years: Strobinger Loible brings Germany back on track

Coldness was required – and (too) he delivered: Stephen Loible (24), who was born in Strobing, scored 1-0 for Germany in the opening round game against Canada. −Photo: imago images

Coldness was required – and (too) he delivered: Stephen Loible (24), who was born in Strobing, scored 1-0 for Germany in the opening round game against Canada. −Photo: imago images

After the first World Cup win against Canada in 25 years, Germany’s ice hockey team has been overpowered with great enthusiasm and an outstanding goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger. On Whit Monday, national coach Tony Soderholm’s selection put the 26-time world champion in Riga at 3: 1 (2: 1, 0: 0, 1: 0) in frustration and continued to yield the first World Cup.

Three years after an Olympic semi-final century match in PyeongChang (6: 3), goals from Strobinger’s Stephen Loible (11th minute), Matthias Plachta (12th) and Corbinian Holzer (58th minute) ensured another historic win against Canada. Of. For which only Nick Paul (19th) was successful.

With this, the team of the German Ice Hockey Federation underlines impressively high ambitions. The last World Cup victory against Canada so far was in Vienna (5: 1) in 1996. With three wins in three matches, the start of the World Cup is reminiscent of the first World Cup under Soderholm in Slovakia in 2019, when there were four consecutive wins and the best World Cup in the end was the preliminary round. This year Germany had already defeated Italy (9: 4) on Friday and Norway (5: 1) on Saturday. The next opponent is Kazakhstan (3.15 pm / Sport 1) on Wednesday.

– DPA