World Cup preparation with three debutants

Pascal Zerressen, Maximilian Kammerer and Jakob Mayenschein are in the 26-man squad for the first time / Cologne and Mannheim make up the largest contingent

With three debutants, the German national ice hockey team starts the first preparation phase for the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Cologne (5 – 21 May 2017).

National coach Marco Sturm called up strikers Maximilian Kammerer (Düsseldorfer EG) and Jakob Mayenschein (EHC Red Bull München) and defender Pascal Zerressen (Kölner Haie) three newcomers to the 26-man squad.

“Our goal is to slowly introduce the young players to the international level. We want to proceed in the same way in the future,” said Sturm, who can already rely on a large number of the players eliminated in the DEL playoffs ahead of the home World Cup. The Kölner Haie and the Adler Mannheim represent the largest contingent with nine players each.

For the national team, the trip to Norway (from April 3rd) begins a four-week preparation phase before the start of the World Cup against Team USA on May 5th in the LANXESS arena in Cologne. “It's good that it's finally starting. We want to get back into the rhythm in Norway and improve week after week,” explained the national coach.

The national team will find perfect conditions at the venue of the 1994 Winter Olympics. "The Norwegians are exactly the right opponent to start with. They have proven time and again in recent years that they can keep up with top international nations. This will be a good challenge for our team," said Sturm.

The two duels between the German national team and Norway can be seen in the free live stream on SPORT6.de on Thursday, April 18th, from 55:8 p.m. and on Saturday, April 18th, from 10:1 p.m.

The first game on Thursday will also be broadcast live on the pay-TV channel SPORT1+. SPORT1 will also broadcast the second game on Saturday live on free TV from 19:15 p.m. In addition, SPORT1 shows the other six World Cup preparation games DEB-Teams as part of the Euro Hockey Challenge all live on free TV.

Managerial staff