Login

*Katth* · 11-29-2023, 04:44 AM

1600 words

My first season as a Tampa Barracuda has wrapped up after I was traded there from Montreal. I had a career high season and we managed to get into the first round of the playoffs where we were knocked out in 5 games. Nobody thought we would come further, but you never know in the playoffs. It was fun to be there and a good experience for the young guys on the team. Hopefully future seasons we can use this experience to our advantage.

After clearing up the locker, I got the call that I was going to be part of Germany's roster once more for the upcoming IIHF tournament. Last season we won our second gold medal in past 3 seasons and we hope to add more medals to that list this season as we have a pretty strong group of people together. Hopefully this season I can also contribute more to the scoring compared to last few seasons as I am one of the highest rated players on the team right now.

S73 IIHF roster for Germany:
Red Kirkby
Evan Winter
Rikkert Biemans
Konstantin Selich
Hodor
Hans Graf
Julian Eaglesong
Kermit Murphy
Oskar Scholz
Jonas Kahnwald
Daniel Grumathan
Faust Faker
Greg Davies
Burlok Sulfurgold
Lasse Zeigler
Chris McZehrl
Steve Harrington playing as D
Timo Lambert playing as D
Olof Karsikko
Scoochie Stratton

No real surprises heres and fortunately a lot of great names turned up for training camp. We have a golden (pun intended) opportunity here to create a legacy with this group of people and we have to give it our all to make it happen. A lot of people picked us for their top favorite too and even in IIHF Fantasy a lot of us were picked as well.

In the round robin stage of the tournament the conferences were divided like this:

Group A
Germany
Great Britain
Ireland
Norway
Russia
Switzerland
United States

Group B
Canada
Czech Rep.
Finland
France
Japan
Latvia
Sweden

Round Robin Stage

Germany vs Ireland
First game of the tournament for us and it was against one of the top favorites for the gold medal, Ireland. It was a nervous and energetic first period which included 8 goals. Unfortunately for us 5 of them were for Ireland. We tried everything to get back into the game, but early in the second period we immediately gave up a shorthanded goal and that put our spirits down a lot. We did managed to get 2 back, but we weren't able to turn it around anymore. Ireland finished us off with an empty net goal.

Final score: 5-7

Switzerland - Germany
After our first game we needed to bounce back against Switzerland and that's what we kind of did. Early in the third we scored our one and only goal, but we managed to shut Switzerland down for the rest of the game. Red Kirkby was our match winner. Switzerlands goaltending was outstanding, stopping the remaining 41 shots on goal.

Final score: 0-1

Germany - Russia
Next up was Russia, a must win game and that's what we did. Match winner was Hans Graf with a first period hattrick. Russia did manage to also score twice in the first period, but in the third period we sealed the deal with two extra goals. Not an easy game, but we managed a good win and scored a few goals to boost our confidence.

Final score: 5-2

Germany - Norway
Norway was also one of the outsiders for a good seeding going into the medal rounds, so we were on our toes going into this game. Our special teams proved to be decisive as we managed to score two power play goals in the third period and we kept Norway shots on goal on pretty decent numbers. Our second shutout of the tournament. Not a bad start apart from game 1.

Final score: 4-0

Germany - United States
I guess we kind of got comfortable after the last game with a great win over Norway, because we got our asses handed to us against United States. They were all over us and outshot us two to one. It was a pretty bad game from our side and one we would like to forget as soon as possible.

Final score: 1-6

Norway - Germany
I guess we were still shell shocked from the game against the United States and Norway did their prep really well. We had no answer to their game plan, were shutout for the first time this tournament and again left empty handed. The first game we won 4-0, but now it was the other way around. After the game a lot of heated moments in the dressing room occured, we had to shake things up, because this was not looking too great.

Final score: 4-0

Great Britain - Germany
Our first game against Great Britan and we had a lot of difficulty to break through. Great Britain took an early lead and it took us quite a while to get even with them. Early in the third we scored the go ahead goal by Rikkert Biemans, but late in the period they equalized. We needed overtime to beat them with a Red Kirkby goal. A win is a win, but damn this was not easy.

Final score: 2-3 (OT)

Germany - Switzerland
On paper an easy game, but during IIHF there rarely are easy games. In the end we did not have that much trouble beating Switzerland and we did manage to score more than one goal this time. Faker (2x), Kirkby and Biemans scored for Team Germany. A scoreless third period wrapped up the game.

Finale score: 4-1

Germany - Great Britain
Seems like Great Britan has our number, because what a tough game this was. Everything we threw at them and it did not seem to hurt them one bit. We were chasing them for almost entire game and we did manage to equalize in the third period, but eventually lost the game in a shootout. I guess we should have practiced that part too.

Final score: 1-2 (SO)

Russia - Germany
Our second game against Russia in this round robin stage and again we did not have much troubles beating them. We did however gave up some weak goals because of poor defending, but if you manage to outscore your opponent you win the game and that is what was important. At this point we were pretty secured to have a seed for the playoffs, but we still have a couple games to go.

Finale score: 3-6

United States - Germany
Time for revent against the United States after the loss in our first game against them. Our gameplan worked and with hard work and dedication we managed to get a 3 goal lead after two periods. In the third we both scored one goal and so we had a strong finish against the United States and got our revenge.

Final score: 1-4

Ireland - Germany
Ireland had already locked top seed in the conference, but we had to get the win to be able to get the second seed and that is what we did. We had a pretty strong game overall and I think Ireland was already preserving energy for the medal rounds as they did not fight us that hard. They also shuffled their lines a bit to get some guys some more ice time. We took the win and took second seed.

Final score: 2-5

Standings Group A
1. Ireland [25 points]
2. Germany [24 points]
3. Norway [23 points]
4. Great Britain[18 points]
5. United States [15 points]
6. Switzerland [12 points]
7. Russia [9 points]

We finished second behind Ireland. Last season we finished ahead of them, but it's been a close race for both seasons. Norway was just one point behind us. It was a tight finish towards the end and Great Britain managed to take fourth place and the last spot for the playoffs.

Standings Group B
1. Sweden [23 points]
2. Finland [21 points]
3. Canada [21 points]
4. France [18 points]
5. Japan [17 points]
6. Latvia [14 points]
7. Czech Republic [12 points]

Also in Group B the top 3 teams finished within 2 points of eachother and France managed to take the final spot for the playoffs.

Playoffs
Ireland vs Great Britain
Germany vs Norway
Sweden vs France
Finland vs Canada

Norway vs Germany
What a game this was with a total of 120 shots on goal. Both goaltenders were standing on their heads in this game. Norway took the early lead and Germany was chasing them for almost the entire game. Early in the third Evan Winter equalized and we went to overtime. In overtime Dabson managed to score the winner for Norway to give them a semi final ticket and we were unfortunately eliminated and did not get a chance to defend our gold medal.

Final score: 2-1 (OT)

Ireland vs Great Britain 4-5 (OT)
Sweden vs France 5-2
Finland vs Canada 2-1

Semi finals
Finland - Sweden 3-6
Great Britain - Norway 1-4

Bronze medal game
Great Britain - Finland 1-9

Gold medal game
Norway - Sweden 3-8

Sweden wins the gold medal! Big congrats to them!