Monday, 16. February 2026 |
The Red Bulls in Milan: DEB team faces knockout match against France
In the qualifying round, the DEB team will play France on Tuesday at 12:10 pm. The French finished bottom of their group behind the top favorites Canada, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The game will be played in the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
The winner of this game will face Slovakia in the quarter-finals on Wednesday at 12:10 pm.
Wagner sets up goal
Of course, our three boys are pursuing this goal. "We have a great opportunity to reach the quarter-finals. But it will be a tough battle, we need to play our best game," said Wagner. While he and Rieder have been on the ice in all three group games so far, Niederberger has yet to make an appearance.
Defenseman Wagner has played alongside NHL defenseman Moritz Seider (Detroit Red Wings) and has already recorded one assist. In the 3:1 win in the opening game against Denmark, our number 55 was involved in the 1:0 lead after just 23 seconds through NHL star Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers). In total, the 30-year-old averages 18:03 minutes of ice time.
Rieder set in the forward line
However, neither Wagner nor Rieder were able to prevent the two defeats against Latvia and the USA. In the end it was 3:4 and 1:5 from a German perspective. Rieder formed the fourth forward line with Alexander Ehl (Adler Mannheim) and Nico Sturm (NHL, Minnesota Wild) and got a good nine minutes of ice time per game.
Our number eight is also optimistic ahead of the clash against France. "Of course you can't underestimate the French, they're a well-coordinated team. But I'm convinced that we have a good chance of progressing."
"That's the standard"
Despite the result on Sunday evening against the USA, the DEB team put in their best performance of the group stage so far. "We were absolutely on a par in the first period - that was probably our best 20 minutes of the whole tournament," said a satisfied national coach Harold Kreis. Germany played actively forwards and even had longer periods of puck possession.
"What we'll definitely take away from this game is the good first period - that's the standard we want to set against France," said the 67-year-old, looking ahead to the knockout game.
There was no ice training today, the focus was on regeneration. With full batteries, the aim now is to make it through to the quarter-finals.
Final table of Group C:
1.
USA | 15:4 goals | 9 points
2.
Germany | 6:9 goals | 3 points
3.
Denmark | 8:11 goals | 3 points
4.
Latvia | 7:12 goals | 3 points
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