Philipp Grubauer became “Man of the Match” with a world-class performance at the first World Cup victory of the DEB team.
Philipp Grubauer ran down his face, his goalkeeper equipment was dripping: the NHL goalie symbolically stood for the 60 tough minutes at the first victory of the German national ice hockey team at the World Cup in Finland. The “octopus of Helsinki” became the “Man of the Match” with a global performance against Slovakia with a 2-1 win against Slovakia and lived up to the name of his NHL team Seattle Kraken with his sometimes spectacular saves.
However, the 28 parried shots on his goal were not only troubled by the Rosenheimer at the successful Olympic revanche against the Beijing-Red. “In the hall it is so brutally warm, it costs again extra energy,” said the 30-year-old at Sport1: “I almost couldn’t stand in the end. That was brutal because the ice is very soft. Gatekeeper hardly slides. “
Grubauer’s teammates also knew why Kristian Pospisil (32nd) was the only Slovak goal scorer in the game report in the Finnish capital. The hymns of praise on the former Stanley Cup champion almost never ended.
ice hockey World Cup: Deb colleagues praise Grubauer
“Grubi was incredibly today,” said NHL shooting star Moritz Seider. “What can you say big? Shots come on the gate and you think: ‘Lick me at the ass’. And he breaks. It’s just a dream to look at it,” said scorer Leo Pföderl. “Grubi radiates incredible calm, which of course helps the team a lot,” added 1-0 shooter Matthias Plachta (22nd). And Söderholm was also impressed by the performance: “He kept very, very strong.”
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For Matchwinner Grubauer there was only one thing in the time -honored “Helsingin Jäähalli” on Saturday evening: “We have to regenerate. We are now free – and then all the fun goes on.” On Monday (7.20 p.m./Sport1 and Magenta Sport) against outsiders France.