The U18 national team lost its opening game of the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. The young talent selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund narrowly lost to their opponents from Sweden 3:5 (0:2; 3:0; 0:3).
The team of U18 national coach Alexander Dück did not get off to a good start in the tournament and conceded the first goal in the third minute through Jonathan Lekkerimaki. A short time later, Liam Ohgren added another for the Swedish team and increased the lead to 2-0.
In the second third, the German team took over and turned the game around. In the 24th minute it was Matthias Pischoff who scored the goal before the equalizer was achieved in the 30th minute, Moritz Elias was the goalscorer. In the last minute of the second third, the German U18 national team took the lead, Roman Kechter was successful despite being outnumbered.
In the third third the Swedes came up again and turned the game around. The lead changed again with early goals from Liam Ohgren and Tim Almgren. The Swedish selection saved this lead over time. The German team tried everything again, but couldn't put anything worthwhile on the scoreboard. Seconds before the end, the decision was made by Leo Karlsson after Germany took their goalkeeper out of the game in favor of a sixth field player.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, we face the hosts from Slovakia. The U18 national team from the United States awaits the conclusion of the group phase on Wednesday.
U18 national coach Alexander Dück: “It was the first game for us in a long time and I have to compliment my team. The boys played with character and passion and although we have only had two training sessions together, the team showed good ice hockey today. You've seen that, especially at this level, we have to work with concentration throughout the entire season. We will analyze the game and try to take the next steps in our development tomorrow.”
Here you can find all the statistics about the tournament: https://www.flashscore.de/eishockey/welt/hlinka-gretzky-cup/