The German U18 national team lost their opening game of the World Cup despite a passionate fight. The young talent selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund lost 1:3 (0:0, 0:2 1:1) to the Czech team of head coach Jakub Petr on the night from Monday to Tuesday. A strong German goalkeeper Nikita Quapp was also with one Fangquote of 92,5 percent was not enough for U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche's team to achieve their first World Cup victory in the top division since 2013. Yannick Proske scored the only German goal (56./Iserlohn Roosters).
In a goalless first third, the German U18 national team played quite well and put up a lot of effort against their opponents in their first World Cup appearance since promotion in 2019. In the last minute, Nikolaus Heigl (Red Bull Hockey Academy) had the best chance for his team when he grabbed the puck at the blue line and ran single-handedly towards the goal - but the Czech goalkeeper Tomas Suchanek made a save.
In the second third, the Czechs took over the game and Lukas Pajer scored his team's first power play goal (21st) right from the start. In the 36th minute, Gabriel Szturc stood alone in front of the German goal and thus extended the Czechs' lead. Shortly after the start of the final third, captain Bennet Rossmy had another chance to break free on the left and score the goal. But here too there was no getting past Suchanek. A little later, the Czech Republic scored another power play goal through Martin Rysavy to make it 0-3.
The DEB-Team then had the chance to shorten the score with a penalty, but Philip Feist (Red Bull Hockey Academy) missed. With just over four minutes of game time left on the clock, Proske scored for the first time for the German U18s and rewarded his commitment with an assist from Adrian Klein (Straubing Tigers) and Nikolaus Heigl at least scored one more goal.
U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche: "The Czech Republic played the whole game at a good and high tempo. They were fast and didn't make it easy for us to keep up with them the whole time. We did our best, even if it wasn't enough in the end. Many of the guys haven't played this season or since November last year. That doesn't make it any easier."
Yannick Proske: "I'm proud of our team. We played hard and cleverly. We went hard in front of the goal, that's what we wanted to do before the game. The game wasn't easy for us, but I think it was a good game. Against the USA we want to play with a lot of physical effort again, go hard in front of the goal and shoot from every position."
Goalkeeper Nikita Quapp: "It was a tough game for me. I had to fend off a lot of shots. But that helped me a little bit because I was always in the game. I think it wasn't a bad game from us."