Canada, the United States and China – these are the group opponents of the German men’s national ice hockey team at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. This is fixed from April 2020. But there were still three places available in the tournament for the qualifiers. Now it is clear: Denmark, Latvia and Slovakia have secured tickets from nine to twelve. The DEB selection was automatically qualified through their placement in the world rankings.

Cheers is especially great in Denmark. Because “Danish Dynamite” had never qualified for the Olympics in ice hockey since the Danish Federation became a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1946 – and now it has become successful even away from home. Because one of the three final qualifying tournaments took place in Norway. But in a duel with their larger neighbor, the Danes won 2–0 in the deciding game. Denmark finished first with nine points, ahead of Norway (6), Slovenia (3) and South Korea (0). Slovakia also won all three games in Bratislava, while Belarus, Austria and Poland recorded three points each. Latvia made it all clear at home with a 2–1 win in the last tournament game against France in Riga. Latvians also wore a white vest with nine points on them; They were followed in the final table of the tournament by France (6), Hungary (3) and Italy (0).

This means that the Olympic Games in 2022 have the following groups:

Group A: Canada, USA, Germany, China.

Group B: Russia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Denmark.

Group C: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Latvia.

The mode remains unchanged compared to the 2018 Olympics: the three group winners and the best runner-up qualify directly to the quarter-finals; The other eight teams determine the four other teams for the quarter-finals in each knockout game.

The German Ice Hockey Association will face the Chinese national team for the first time in 2022. In April 2020 we spoke to Joachim Zische – as the GDR once played six internationals against China. That’s what he said about the still “unknown” opponent at the time.