Heads turned to the ice, the expressions of German ice hockey players expressed deep dismay. A strong World Cup of the German team ended in some form of bankruptcy – the coronation did not take place. In the game for third place, national coach Tony Soderholm’s team defeated the United States 1:6 (0:1; 0:4; 1:1) in Latvian Riga. Thus the DEB team has missed out on winning its first bronze medal since 1934. The game was replayed after a close 2–0 draw in the opening round against the United States, which was disappointing for the players. disappointed by Lost in the semi-finals to Finland Left its mark a day earlier too.

“It hurts ruthlessly right now. Words are hard to find,” said Korbinian Holzer and had to blow through first: “We were so close to making it to the final, it wasn’t enough today,” said the defender and Concluded: “It will take until we realize what we have achieved. There are small details that are missing on top of the world. It was a big step.”

The tenth game in two weeks at this World Cup pitted the German team against the United States team. In the first third, the DEB team was able to keep up, but was caught in a freeze by American player Christian Wolanin (VI), who converted the first American shot directly.

German team without energy

Since then, strength and morale plummeted, as if someone had pulled the plug on the German players. A blackout that took away any prospect of the precious metal from the Soderholm team. The American team managed to do what they wanted in the second third. America took advantage of this surprising German reluctance. Conor Garland (27th), Jack Drury (29th), Jason Robertson (32nd) and Trevor Moore (33rd) made their team unbeaten. The German team could not even score a goal for five minutes with a majority of 5:3.

In the third third, the German team at least remembered their fighting prowess, which they had shown throughout the World Cup. Dominic Bittner scored at least a slightly cosmetic result with his first goal in his second World Cup game with 1:5 (50th). But only 25 seconds later the United States held on again through Ryan Donato, 6–1 (50th).

Canada won the world cup

A radically different from the German team, which started the tournament with three victories, the World Cup went to the new world champions: after a historically weak start to the World Cup, Canada took the title. In a thrilling final, the Canadian won 3:2 (0:1, 1:0, 1:1, 1:0) after extra time against defending champions Finland and won the World Cup for the 27th time. With this, the Canadian caught up with the record champion Russia.

The Anaheim Ducks’ two NHL strikers Maxim Komtois (25th) and Adam Heinrich (53rd) equalized the deficit twice. In overtime, Nick Paul of the Ottawa Senators led the Canadians to a gold medal and prevented the Finns from winning their fourth world title. For Germany’s winners Finland, goals from Mikel Ruhoma (9th) and Petri Lindbohm (46th) did little to defend the 2019 title.