The German U18 national team suffered a defeat in the final group match at the IIHF U18 World Championship in the USA. The team of U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche lost to the team from Finland 0:10 (0:5, 0:3, 0:2) and thus missed out on a respectable final victory. Five Finnish goals were scored while Germany was outnumbered. In goal for the German Ice Hockey Federation selection, Luca Ganz (Jungadler Mannheim) saved 33 of 43 shots on his goal, most notably DEBThe player chosen was Thomas Heigl (Red Bull Hockey Academy).
As the three best DEB-Players in the tournament were captain Bennet Roßmy (Lausitzer Füchse), goalkeeper Nikita Quapp (Krefeld Pinguine) and Nikolaus Heigl (Red Bull Hockey Academy).
U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche: “We weren't on the same level as the Finns, it wasn't the game we had imagined at the end of the tournament. We have to learn from it, we have to analyze the tournament, why we have good games and also games like that in order to find solutions for the future and prepare the next year for the next World Cup. The situation is tough because of the pandemic, our league hasn't been able to play since November, but we can't play like we are today. The players have to learn to fight every day, to work hard as a team every day. That is the biggest lesson. Our last official game before the tournament was in July 2020, which is a long time since we haven't had a course together since then. Hopefully we can have some normality and that the kids can play and train and we can develop the players again. That’s the most important thing for us.”
Michael Gottwald: “We didn't do the simple things right, the Finns were faster in terms of running and simply quicker. At world-class level the challenge is very high and I personally still have a long way to go.”
Pascal Steck: "It was a big event, everything was very well organized by the IIHF. The pace on the ice was extremely high, many of us had hardly played all season, it was a great experience."