After a great display of willpower, the German U20 national team won its third World Cup group match against Slovakia and celebrated its first victory at the World Cup tournament in Canada. The still heavily depleted team of U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter won 4:3 (1:1, 2:2, 0:0, 1:0) after extra time at Rogers Place in Edmonton and thus opened up a chance of reaching the quarter-finals. Defender Mario Zimmermann (65th) scored the decisive goal, and the other goals for the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund selection were scored by captain Tim Stützle (6th, 29th) and Florian Elias (40th) in an eventful encounter. Three German goals were scored when the team was in the majority.
Stützle, who recorded three scorer points, and Elias now have three tournament goals each. Defender Simon Gnyp had three assists, and Elias and John Peterka (two assists) also scored several points. The DEBteam had to make do with 14 field players again, as the two defenders Niklas Länger (Augsburger Panther) and Maksymilian Szuber (Red Bull Juniors) had not yet received clearance to play after their corona infection. Goalie Florian Bugl (Red Bull Hockey Juniors), on the other hand, had received the green light and started in the goal of the DEBteams, Arno Tiefensee sat on the bench as back-up.
The German U20 now has another day off from play before the duel against Switzerland on the night of December 31st. From midnight (CET/live on MagentaSport) is the DEB-Selection will then be in action at this World Cup tournament for the fourth time and is hoping for one or two more field players.
The German team appeared to have recovered well from the defeat against Canada and repeatedly found themselves in promising situations in attack. Stützle impressed with his individual quality, but also frequently used his teammates. Conversely, the Abstreiter team also had to be very vigilant defensively, as the Slovakians played very straightforwardly. Bugl was called upon several times and was ultimately named the best player in the German team.
For Germany's first goal, a wrist shot from Simon Gnyp was deflected off Elias and then bounced off Stützle's leg into the goal. As a result, Michal Mrazik (11th) came on for Slovakia to make it 1-1, but was previously in an offside position. Oleksiy Myklukha (24') turned the game around before Stützle moved quickly into the Slovakian third in the power play and his shot ended up in the goal via a detour. After Mrazik (35th) was successful again, Elias made it 3-3 when he held his bat to a shot from Gnyp. Zimmermann then scored the celebrated final point with a well-placed wrist shot.
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: “It was a very, very good team performance with great passion. From the first to the last minute the boys believed in victory. The special teams were also very good and everyone threw themselves into the shots. That was a very good answer and shows that the boys have a very good character and a very good team spirit. They absolutely deserved the win.”