The U20 World Cup in Edmonton was a great success with the first quarter-final participation of a German U20 national team. The team of U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter defied many adversities and represented the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund with distinction.
The performance was ultimately reflected in various statistical areas. Some of the positive statistics are shown as examples:
top scorer
The first German strike formation was with ten or nine scorer points from five games Captain Tim Stützle, John Peterka and Florian Elias especially noticable. Stützle (5 goals/5 assists), Peterka (4 goals/6 assists) and Elias (4 goals/5 assists) took fourth to sixth place in the scorer rankings for the entire World Cup tournament. The American Trevor Zegras from the new title holder was unmatched, scoring 18 points (7/11) in seven games. Among the defenders, Finn Topi Niemelä collected the most goal contributions with eight points (2/6) from seven games. At the DEBteam was the Cologne team Simon Gnyp The top point collector with four assists in five games.
Team of the tournament
Stützle was also recognized for his outstanding performances and was honored as the tournament's best striker, despite playing two fewer games than the players on the semi-final team. The Viersen native was also part of the team of the tournament alongside goalie Devon Levi (Canada), defenders Bowen Byram (Canada), Ville Heinola (Finland) and strikers Dylan Cozens (Canada) and Zegras
Individual statistics
German players also stood out in other areas. For example, Elias from Mannheim had the best shot efficiency of the tournament with three other players. Every third of his shots on goal found their way into the net. Stützle and Peterka also had hit rates of over 20 percent. Peterka from Munich was also the third best assist provider of the tournament. At the face-off point, the Ravensburg player had Josh Samanski From a German perspective, the best value with 54,29 percent of face-offs won. The Slovak Oleksiy Myklukha, the Swede Oscar Bjerselius and the Finn Anton Lundell were the strongest players here with a success rate of over 70 percent.
goalkeeper
The statistical values of Florian Bugl don't quite show the importance that the goalie has for the DEB- had a choice. With his calm and sovereignty, he was an important building block and counted alongside defenders Mario Zimmerman and Stützle were among the three best German players of the tournament. Bugl was successful in two of his three missions and came up with one Fangrate of 89,66 percent and a goals conceded average of 2,95. The statistically outstanding goalkeepers at the World Cup were the Canadian Devon Levi (96,4 percent/0,75) and the American Spencer Knight (93,96 percent/1,63).
Team stats
The German team's shot yield was very good in comparison to the tournament, only the finalists Canada (16,21 percent) and USA (13,95 percent) were more efficient here. 13,27 percent of the DEB-Shots on the opponent's goal also led to success. The rate in power play situations was also very high. In 30,77 percent of cases, a German power play was followed by a goal, which meant overall fifth place behind the USA, Finland, Canada and Sweden. The power play had room for improvement at 68,42 percent.
Outlook
The DEBThe team not only reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since the introduction of knockout games, it ultimately finished in a very remarkable sixth place in the tournament. The final placings also determined the expected group allocation for the 20 U2022 World Cup, which will again take place in Canada. In addition to Edmonton, the games will also be played in Red Deer - in front of spectators, as everyone wishes. Germany will then compete in Group B again in the NHL home of the Edmonton Oilers, including national players Leon Draisaitl and Dominik Kahun.
Photos: HHOF/IIHF Images
