The German U18 national team lost its only test match before the IIHF U18 World Championships in the USA. The team of U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche lost 1:5 (0:2, 0:1, 1:2) against Latvia on the night from Saturday to Sunday. The only goal for the selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund was scored by Kevin Niedenz from Cologne (56th) on a pass from Adrian Klein from Straubing and Nikolaus Heigl from the Red Bull Hockey Academy. In the DEBKrefeld's Nikita Quapp and Simon Wolf (Red Bull Hockey Academy) shared the work for the goal.
It was the first international match for the German U18 men since July 2020 and the two comparisons in Switzerland. On Tuesday night from 23.00 p.m. German time onwards DEB-Selection for the start of the World Cup in preliminary round group B, the first opponent in the Comerica Center in Frisco/Texas is the Czech Republic. This will be followed by duels with the USA, Russia and Finland.
U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche: “After such a long time, it was nice that we were able to play a game again. The boys noticed that we hadn't competed in a long time and had a hard time getting into the game. It was difficult for us to free ourselves from the pressure on the small ice surface, we were often too late in the duels and allowed chances that then led to goals being conceded. We have to learn relatively quickly to free ourselves from the pressure in our own zone and to play more straight and simply. Now we will prepare well for the game against the Czechs.