Germany defeats Kazakhstan / Napravnik with a double blow
A tailor-made start: The U20 national team won the first game of the 2017 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championship Div.I in Bremerhaven with 5:3 (2:0; 2:2; 1:1) against Kazakhstan.
The DEB-Selection started the game committed and courageous. They played creatively offensively and did well defensively. After a good period of pressure, it was Julian Napravnik who shot his colors into the lead with two points with a double strike.
But Kazakhstan found its way back into the game. The Kazakhs scored the next goal when they were in the majority and equalized with a penalty. Cody Brenner then had to prove his skills a few more times in the German goal before Valentin Kopp relieved the German U20s and scored the lead again when they were in the majority. Shortly before the second break, Nicklas Mannes increased the score to 4:2.
Kazakhstan got within one point in the final period with a power-play goal, but Jakob Mayenschein sealed the 5-3 score with his empty-net goal in front of 1.829 spectators in the Bremerhaven ice arena.
Federal youth coach Christian Künast: "It was the difficult game we expected. Kazakhstan is an unpleasant opponent and we made it difficult for ourselves with the penalties. Of course we are happy about the opening win, but from now on we will concentrate on tomorrow's game against Austria."
Julian Napravnik: "The team played well today. We slacked off a bit in the second period, but then found our way back into the game in the third period and ultimately deserved to win."
Christoph Körner: "We showed a good team performance today. A big thank you to the crowd, who supported us so well."
You can find detailed statistics here