The German national team of U20 juniors lost to the team from Finland 20:1 (3:0:1,1:1,0) in the opening game of the U1 World Championship in Edmonton. U20 national coach Tobi Abstreiter's team put on a consistently appealing performance in front of around 2000 spectators in the Rogers Arena and were almost on a par with the Finns.
Before the game there was a memorial moment to remember Niclas Kaus. The 18-year-old young talent player Löwen Frankfurt died on December 23, 2021 as a result of a terrible sports accident suffered last weekend.
The German team started the game courageously and energetically. Already in the second minute of the game, Krefeld's Maciej Rutkowski had the first chance to score for U20 national coach Tobi Abstreiter's boys. As the course progressed, an open first section developed. In the first outnumbered situation of the game, Germany goalkeeper Nikita Quapp (Krefeld Pinguine) the Finns with four good ones Parathe first thing to think about. And even though Finland striker Samuel Helenius gave his team the lead with a deflection in front of the German goal in the 13th minute, the Germans continued to play courageously, move well and win a few duels.
The team then carried the momentum from the first third into the second half. Luca Münzenberger, who was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in this year's NHL draft, was able to equalize on the power play in the 24th minute with a shot into the bottom right corner, just over the pad of Finland's goalkeeper Leevi Meerilainen, after Krefeld's Alex Blank had carried the disc into the opposing attacking third. It didn't take long for the Finns to respond. The post saved the game in the 27th minute, but then the Suomi juniors followed up, increased the pressure and were able to take the lead again thanks to a goal from Joel Määtä. But the German team didn't let this deter them, continued to check well and fought hard. Shots were blocked and if that didn't work, like in the 40th minute, goalie Quapp was there.
At the beginning of the final period, the Germans tried everything to equalize. In the 48th minute of the game, Helenius scored the preliminary decision of the game with his second goal, a brilliantly scored counterattack goal. Nevertheless, the boys didn't give up. Even when they were outnumbered, they launched their own attacks, but Danjo Leonhardt, for example, was denied by the Finnish goalkeeper in the 53rd minute. 133 seconds before the end of the game, the Germans put everything on one card and took the goalkeeper off the ice in favor of a sixth skater. But there wasn't more than one good opportunity for Markus Schweiger.
This will happen in the next match DEB-Team on the night of Monday to Tuesday (1 a.m. CET) in the Czech Republic.
On the sidelines of the first game, the international world governing body (IIHF) announced that the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship will be played in Omsk and Novosibirsk (Russia) with eleven teams. Due to the exceptional pandemic-related circumstances of the tournament, there will be no relegation from the top division. Belarus has already qualified as a promoted team.
National coach Tobias Abstreiter about how the game went: “We really got off to a good start and got into the game well. We built up the game well from our own zone and got into the offensive zone several times. We were well organized in our own zone and only an unfortunate deflected shot made it 0-1. In the second third we were too complicated in our forward movement and had too long transitions and therefore spent more time in our zone than we wanted. The team spirit was really very good. We believed in victory until the end. We can build on this performance.”
Luca Münzenberger about the match today: “We played quite well and were particularly stable in defense. Quappi played well in goal and scored a few big things for us. Unfortunately we allowed three goals and only scored one and therefore lost despite our good performance. We just have to come back and play well tomorrow against the Czech Republic.”