By Steve Keating
BEIJING (Reuters) – Defending silver medallist Germany crashed out of the Beijing Winter Games men’s ice hockey competition while Olympic debutants Denmark moved onto the quarter-finals on Tuesday as the tournament lived up to its unpredictable billing.
Germany, who were the surprise package of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, made a shock exit falling 4-0 to Slovakia in the qualification round while Olympic newcomers Denmark assumed the spoiler role advancing after edging Latvia 3-2.
“They were hard on us, they won more battles and that’s how you win hockey games – and we just didn’t do it consistently enough throughout the game,” said German forward Tom Kuhnhackl. “Obviously this tournament didn’t go as we planned it, as we expected it but that’s just a small setback.
“We’ve got to work on small details and we’re just going to come back even stronger.”
Germany was outworked at both ends of the rink by the Slovakians and when they did get a scoring chance could not get a puck past netminder Patrik Rybar who made 21 saves to earn the shutout.
Libor Hudacek had the only goal in a tight-checking opening period before the Slovakia took control in the second when Peter Cehlarik and Michal Kristof scored 1:44 apart.
Captain Marek Hrivik closed out the scoring in the third.
Deadlocked at 2-2 heading into the third period Markus Lauridsen’s powerplay goal sent Denmark through to the last eight.
The two teams traded goals in the two opening periods led by Morten Poulsen and Julian Jakovsensouting for Denmark while Lauris Darzins had both Latvia goals.
Denmark and Slovakia join defending gold medallists Russia Olympic Committee (ROC), United States and Finland, who had already secured their spots in the quarter-finals by winning their groups and Sweden with the best second place record.
The final two spots will be decided later on Tuesday with Canada taking on China and Switzerland facing off against the Czech Republic.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Beijing, additional reporting Amy Tennery. Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
