Slovakia beats Germany ahead of the 2010 World Championship

Hosts Germany suffered another defeat in a warm-up game ahead of the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship, which will be held on home ice. In the 3–2 overtime loss (2–1, 0–0, 0–1, 1–0) to the Olympic fourth-place finishers from Slovakia , the German team nevertheless showed a marked improvement over its previous game against Switzerland and demonstrated plenty of fighting spirit. Even so, it was already their third warm-up game without a win in five days.

Marek Zagrapan put Slovakia 1–0 up in the fifth minute, but Cologne’s Marcel Müller immediately equalized for Germany. Michal Chovan restored Slovakia’s lead in the 13th minute, before Müller’s second goal, in the 55th minute, forced overtime. Slovakia’s national team eventually skated off as winners thanks to Andrej Podkonicky’s goal. Head coach Uwe “King Kong” Krupp nevertheless viewed the latest defeat positively overall: “We were better than in the first game,” Krupp said. “The defense was very solid.” Germany’s best player, in what was its 52nd defeat in 132 games against Slovakia, was goaltender Rob Zepp. The Eisbären Berlin netminder put in a flawless performance.

Krupp gives his players five days off

After the two-game warm-up series against Slovakia, head coach Uwe Krupp is giving his team five days off. They will regroup in Hamburg next Saturday. The city will host the World Championship dress rehearsal against Canada on May 4. Three days later, on May 7, 2010, the Ice Hockey World Championship begins against Olympic silver medalists USA, before a world-record crowd of 76,000 at the stadium in Gelsenkirchen.