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Team Germany
D'Arcy McGrath
February 13th, 2002

Strengths

In a word ... cohesion.

The German team used familiarity, cohesion, and well-coached system to climb from the preliminary round and into the championship round of the tournament.

NO.   PLAYER   Pos.   Ht.   Wt.   Birth Date   Team 
2 Jochen Molling D 186 100 09.08.73 Kassel Huskies
6 Jorg Mayr D 177 81 03.01.70 Kolner Haie
8 Vitalij Aab F - - - Nurnberg
9 Heiko Smazal D 179 81 06.01.74 Munchen Barons
12 Mirko Ludemann D 180 83 15.12.73 Kolner Haie
16 Wayne Haynes F 182 93 29.05.69 Die Adler Mannheim
18 Andreas Loth F 184 88 26.02.72 Kassel Huskies
19 Marco Sturm F - - - San José
20 Jurgen Rumrich F 181 85 20.03.68 Nurnberg Ice Tigers
21 Stefan Ustorf F - - - Adler Mannheim
22 Martin Reichel F - - - Nurnberg
26 Daniel Kreutzer F 178 82 23.10.79 Kassel Huskies
27 Tobias Abstreiter F - - - Kassel
31 Andreas Renz D 183 90 12.06.77 Schwenningen
33 Marc Seliger G - - - Nurnberg
36 Erich Goldmann D - - - Essen
37 Olaf Kolzig G - - - Washington
39 Robert Hock F - - - Oberhausen
41 Daniel Kunce D 186 93 17.07.71 Nurnberg Ice Tigers
45 Thomas Daffner F - - - Kassel
47 Christian Kunast GK 180 82 07.03.71 Munchen Barons
48 Len Soccio F 181 85 28.05.67 Hannover Scorpions
49 Klaus Kathan F 181 84 07.01.77 Kassel Huskies
80 Robert Muller GK 172 74 25.06.80 Adler Mannheim
81 Mark MacKay F 175 75 28.05.64 Schwenningen
83 Jan Benda F 192 96 28.04.72 Jokerit Helsinki
84 Dennis Seidenberg D - - - Adler Mannheim

The German's roster is primarily made up of German nationals, that compete against and with each other in the German elite league back home. While competitors like Slovakia were air lifting in NHL player after NHL player, the Germans just stuck to their game plan and quietly won all three games on their schedule.

With Olaf Kolzig and Marco Sturm set to join the squad on a permanent basis, the team will actually get better.

Weaknesses

Depth and talent.

When it comes to elite hockey skills the German team falls short of the "big six" that are expected to battle it out for medals.

History

The German Olympic hockey team has been on the fringe of the big eight for some time. They have never won a gold nor silver medal in competition, but did medal with a Bronze in both of 1932 and 1976.

Udo Kiessling holds the record for German attendance in the Winter Games, representing his country on four different occasions, a total of 32 games.

Their all time Olympic record is 36-58-6, first competing in the Games in 1928.

Flames Players/Prospects

None.

Keys to Victory

They'll need great defense, all world goaltending, and timely goals if they expect to move deep into the medal round.

The German team plays an aggressive and physical style, a methodology that was very beneficial in the preliminary round. They'll have to continue that style against much bigger and more seasoned players now that the real games have begun.

 

 

 

 

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