PROVO — Germany claimed a spot in the medals round and earned the right to be called the official surprise team of the Olympic men's hockey tournament Tuesday night.
The Germans smothered Latvia with stifling defense and clutch goaltending to win the Surprise Showdown 4-1 at The Peaks Ice Arena.
Neither Germany nor Latvia was really expected to be in contention for an entry into the elite eight later this week, but the teams' great play — along with Slovakia's meltdown — turned this game into the Group A pool-play clincher. And Germany, though only ranked 20th in the world, proved to be the stronger surprise squad.
"I think we shocked everyone," said Germany's Leonard Soccio, who scored the game-winning goal in the first period.
Especially shocking on Tuesday was how Germany, despite playing this game without any NHL players, scored four times on Carolina Hurricanes goalie Arturs Irbe in his Olympic debut.
"Our hopes were shattered by a really good team with a capital 'T,"' said Irbe, who missed Latvia's first two games due to an NHL ruling. "Team Germany put on a great show in the Olympics preliminary round."
The show's star so far has been goalie Marc Seliger, who has only allowed three goals in as many games. In doing so, Seliger has outplayed two NHL goalies — Switzerland's David Aebischer and Irbe.
"This is the greatest moment of my career. I'm so happy," said Seliger, who made 25 of 26 saves against Latvia. "I've got to thank my whole team because they played a wonderful game. . . . This was a team victory tonight."
The Germans are the second-ranked qualifier, so they'll move on to join Group C, which includes powerhouses Canada, the Czech Republic and Sweden. Belarus, the highest-ranked team from the prelims based on its ninth-place finish at the 1999 World Championships, will be grouped with the United States, Russia and Finland.
"Not a lot of people gave us a chance to get to the medal round," said Germany defenseman Christian Ehrhoff. "The tournament's not over for us. We're not going to roll over."
Germany will get some NHL help in the next round but not as much as it had hoped for. San Jose Sharks' Marco Sturm will rejoin the team — he's already played once here — but Capitals' goalie Olaf Kolzig was injured last Friday and might not be healed in time to play in these Winter Games. Kolzig's injury — a mild knee strain on Friday — might not be as devastating if Seliger can continue his outstanding play.
AUSTRIA 3, SLOVAKIA 2: Though it was too late to get them into the final round, the Austrians were plenty thrilled to come out on top for their first victory in the Olympics since beating Norway in 1994.
"It's a great win for Austrian hockey," said Simon Wheeldon, who had a goal and an assist. "We should have beaten Germany, and it was nice to see us not give up."
Slovakia didn't have most of its NHL players — after having been eliminated due to a loss to Germany and a tie with Latvia — and only used 11 skaters.
"It's very disappointing for us," said Richard Linter, whose team was a potential medalist but ended with a 0-2-1 record for last place. "It's like a bad dream."