By Amy Tennery and Janina Nuno Rios
MILAN, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Germany swatted aside France 5-1 to reach the Olympic men’s ice hockey quarter-finals on Tuesday, setting up a meeting with surprise Group B winners Slovakia in the final eight.
Captain Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring in the first period and set up his Edmonton Oilers teammate Joshua Samanski for another goal in the third.
Forwards Frederik Tiffels, JJ Peterka and Nico Sturm also scored in the qualification playoff game at Santagiulia Arena.
France were playing without defenceman Pierre Crinon after the French federation suspended him, citing “provocative behaviour” following a fight with Canadian Tom Wilson in Sunday’s group-stage defeat by the tournament favourites.
Draisaitl rifled one in on the power play in the fourth minute, his second goal of the tournament, before Tiffels flipped the puck off the goalie’s mask and into the near corner in a solo effort.
Peterka flipped in an easy wrist shot with less than two minutes left before the intermission.
A bit of luck went France’s way when captain Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ricocheted a shot off a German skate and into the net early in the second and goalie Antoine Keller made a couple of nice glove saves to keep France in the fight.
But the Germans put it completely out of reach when Draisaitl fed the puck perfectly to Samanski in the slot and Sturm tapped one into the empty net in the final minute.
Germany’s goaltender Philipp Grubauer welcomed the switch to lighter rink boards after the International Ice Hockey Federation’s mid-tournament adjustment, saying the change made a noticeable difference from his crease.
“Thank God, because I’m colourblind,” he said with a smile. “It wasn’t that easy sometimes, so it’s a good change by them, obviously.”
Looking ahead, Germany now face a quick turnaround against Beijing bronze medallists Slovakia on Wednesday, a step up in pace and physicality.
“They have a good team like anybody else in this tournament,” Germany centre Tim Stutzle, who assisted twice in the win, said.
“We’ve got to be ready. They had three days off. We’ve got to come out hard and play physically against them as well. We know they’re going to push us, so we’ve got to be ready for that.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Milan; editing by Clare Fallon and Ken Ferris)
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