The day ended early for Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, but the tournament will be continuing for Germany. Despite losing their sensational defender to an early game misconduct, Germany stunned Switzerland 3-1 in Thursday’s quarterfinals at the IIF Worlc Championship.
Seider was assessed a major and game misconduct in the second period for boarding after his check from behind drove the head of Swiss forward Gaetan Haas into the glass. The score was tied 1-1 at the time. After the Germans successfully killed off Seider’s major, they scored twice to eiliminate the Swiss.
“That happens in ice hockey,” German coach Harold Kreis told Bild.de. “Moritz was very upset. At the bench we said to each other, ‘Let’s move together now, let’s go boys, we can do it like this.'”
Germany finished fourth in pool play, while the Swiss were topping their pool.
“The only downside is that we don’t know how long Mo will be missing,” German captain Moritz Mueller said, pondering whether Seider might recieve supplementary discipline from the IIHF.
Red Wings Lalonde, Americans Remain Perfect
Germany will be facing the USA in one of Saturday’s semifinals. Red Wings draft pick Carter Mazur played 16 minutes and was +2 as the USA blanked Czechia 3-0 in their quarterfinal. Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde is working as an assistant coach to David Quinn of the San Jose Sharks on the Team USA bench.
Quinn was causing a bit of a stir when he jokingly told the Finnish media that the Americans were maintaining the country’s tradtion of being the biggest partiers at the worlds.
“We try to drink as much as possible,” Quinn said in jest to Finnish TV network MTV Uutiset. “As a matter of fact, we’re going to try to stay out until 4 in the morning and see what happens. We’re gonna try to play hungover. Apparently that’s what everyone thinks we do. Anyone who comes home before 4 a.m. won’t play.”
The Czechs scored just three goals over their last three games, all losses. Red Wings forward Dominik Kubalik is leading the tourney with eight goals. He didn’t score in any of the past three games and was blaming himself for Czechia’s worst-ever eighth-place finish.
“This is a team sport,” Czechia coach Karil Jalonen told isport.blesk.cz. “It’s not Kubalik. The team loses, the team wins. Always. It is never an individual. I don’t understand that anyone should blame themselves.”
Sweden Eliminated
The second semifinal will put Latvia against Canada. The Latvians shocked Sweden with a 3-1 setback. Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond derw an assist on the lone Swedish goal.
Canada ousted defending champions Finland 4-1. Red Wings assistant coach Alex Tanguay is an assistant coach for Canada, while Detroit GM Steve Yzerman is serving as Canada’s assistant GM. The Canadians are playing with Detroit coach Joe Veleno. He received a five-game IIHF suspension for kicking Switzerland’s Nino Niederreiter.
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