Et’s not so easy to tell from Harold Kreis’s facial expressions what’s going on inside him. But of course the national ice hockey coach knows that himself: “I’m not always as calm as I look,” said Kreis these days in Tampere, where the world championship is currently taking place. Whether his team wins or loses, you don’t see it.
Not even on this Sunday, when Kreis would have had every reason to be in a good mood behind the gang. The selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) won against Hungary 7:2 and celebrated the third win in a row. As a result, she jumped to fourth place in Group A and is getting closer and closer to her minimum goal of quarter-finals. Only one win on Tuesday (11.20 a.m. at Sport1 and MagentaSport) in the last group game against France is still missing.
“Nico is an absolute professional”
Now the Hungarians are anything but an ice hockey heavyweight, since the turn of the millennium they are only experiencing their third A World Championship. But they have a lot of fans and they have already celebrated a win over France, with another win against Austria on Monday evening the Hungarians could even make it clear that they remain in the league.
The Germans were therefore warned not to take the climber lightly. Accordingly, they could be satisfied with their clear victory – significantly more than two days earlier after the tedious 4:2 over Austria. After that, the national coach had clearly criticized his top row with Dominik Kahun, Marcel Noebels and JJ Perterka: “We say: boys, play our game.” Which they apparently had not done. In the last third, Kreis Peterka even left the bench and announced changes. They were then smaller than expected, the squad remained the same, only Noebels moved to the third row, Frederik Tiffels was raised.
With whose performance the national coach, on the other hand, consistently agrees: with that of Nico Sturm. “Nico is an absolute professional, in game preparation, in the weight room,” says Kreis, “he really is a role model for everyone.” Although the so-praised is currently experiencing his first World Cup, that’s the only reason the 28-year-old wasn’t there recently , because he was in demand in the elite NHL league. Last year he even won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, then signed for three years and six million dollars (around 6.5 million euros) with the San José Sharks. Sturm knows that others have more talent, but it’s his work ethic that has guaranteed his spot in the world’s strongest league since 2019.
Now at the World Championships in Finland, he is one of the managers in the DEB team – both on and off the ice. Also on Sunday when he again fought numerous pucks and scored two goals. With a total of five goals, he is the best German goalscorer and also the best scorer with six points. In addition, his row with Alexander Ehl and Samuel Soramies hardly gets any goals. Because she does what the coach wants to see: no hara-kiri action, but a clear game, deep instead of across. Sturm himself says: “We have always had success when we played our simple ice hockey.”
The fourth row, which has already scored twice against Austria, also stands for this. That brought the German team into the lead against Hungary on Sunday. Parker Tuomie fought for the puck, Justin Schütz took aim and Wojciech Stachowiak used the margin. But that was the only goal in the first period. Despite further top chances – JJ Perterka missed the biggest one and was visibly frustrated afterwards.
Moritz Seider was similarly upset in the second third: The Germans were outnumbered anyway because of a five-minute penalty from Maksymilian Szuber, so Seider allowed himself an unnecessary foul. But good luck to those who have a Nico Sturm: Sturm won face-offs, caught the puck twice and then got a penalty time. When the Germans were complete again, Seider scored in the 36th minute to make it 2-0, and shortly afterwards Sturm added two more goals. Then the game was decided.
The Hungarians also scored twice in the last third, but there were also German reports of success: first JJ Peterka scored with an artful shot from an acute angle, then he set up the first goal of the tournament for Dominik Kahun, and Jonas Müller scored the final point. Harold Kreis took it all in almost impassively.
