Deutschland Cup, Day One: Team USA fights, Switzerland convinces

This year's edition of the Deutschland Cup is going to be special. Not only it is the first time that the important tournament -a good occasion to warm up the rosters- is being held in the Swabian city of Augsburg, but the four participants are also all under new coaches.

The first game, which saw Team USA (under the giuide of Mark Osiecki, a former college hockey trainer with AHL experience) play against Slowakia, really became interesting only in the mid-period, when the 25-year old Ben Hanowski scored the only goal of the match. Hanowski, which plays for the home team Augsburger Panther in the DEL, totalized 16 games in the NHL during two seasons with the Calgary Flames, with one goal and two assists overall. The American team is obviously only composed by players under contract in Europe, hence its sort of "experimental" character. Slovakia had, too, many players coming from the Czech Extraliga, the KHL, and of course the Slovak Extraliga, but it showed a more "work in prograss" character, not necessarily bad. Zdeno Cíger, the new trainer, has a lot of experience as a player in the NHL, and will definitely shape the guys' style of playing for the next games.

Team Switzerland came as well from a difficult situation, with no permanent coach being announced. The interim coach, Felix Hollenstein, didn't travel to Germany citing familiar issues, and his post was thus offered to John Fust, already assistant coach under Glen Hanlon, who preceded him on the Swiss bench. His chosen roster is only made of players playing in the National League A. Germany, captained by Patrick Reimer, is also only composed of DEL players, under the guide of NHL national legend Marco Sturm. Philip Gogulla (Kölner Haie) scored first for the home team, but in the second period came the goals of Simon Moser (SC Bern) and Gregory Hofmann of HC Lugano. In the last part of the game, Daryl Boyle (Red Bull München) equalized the score, but a final goal by Lino Martschini (EV Zug) destroyed all residual hope for the Germans.

Tomorrow Switzerland will face Team USA, while Germany will take on Slovakia.

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