The German national team of U20 juniors achieved their first victory in the second match at this year's World Juniors. With 2:1 (0:0,1:1,0:0/1:0) after extra time, national coach Tobias Abstreiter's team defeated the Czech Republic. The match winners were goalkeeper Florian Bugl and double goalscorer Alexander Blank.
Already in the first six minutes of the game it was clear that one German player in particular would be the focus: goalkeeper Florian Bugl. The native of Landshut, who plays for Salzburg, started today in the box DEBteams and immediately defused five shots at the start of the game. It took a while before the German team got to the Czech goal. It was the Straubing defender Adrian Klein who challenged our neighbors' defense twice with shots. For the German juniors, it was primarily goalie Bugl who met the Czechs' demands time and time again, including when there were big chances when they were outnumbered (19th) and outnumbered (20th).
In the middle section, U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter's team started off much more aggressively. In the 22nd minute, defenseman Luca Münzenberger intercepted the puck in the neutral zone, went alone to Czech goalkeeper Jan Bednar, but failed to catch the Detroit Red Wings' NHL draft pick. But in the 25th minute the time had come. The Krefeld line of storms struck. Maciej Rutkowski went into the third on the right, passed the puck with his backhand backwards to Alexander Blank, with whom he had played together for a long time in the Krefeld Young Talent, and the son of ex-national player Boris Blank hit the top right from close range. Now the Germans had the offensive momentum on their side. Danjo Leonhardt, John Samanski and Justin Volek had good scoring opportunities. The Czech team remained dangerous on the counterattack, but when they got through, goalkeeper Bugl was there. Only once did he have no chance. When the Czech Republic played in the majority in the 36th minute, their captain Jan Mysak actually wanted to pass the puck into the middle, but unfortunately hit Mannheim's Arkadiusz Dziambor on the skate and from there the disc jumped over the goal line to make it 1-1.
The Czech team got off to a better start in the final third. In the 41st and 43rd minutes, Florian Bugl had to make a desperate save, but remained extremely stable and was a great support for his team. As the game went on, the German team got better and better. However, a well-deserved winning goal was not achieved in regular time despite good scoring opportunities from Maksymilian Szuber and Danjo Leonhardt, for example.
However, the German ice hockey fans who stayed awake didn't have to wait long for that in overtime. In the 62nd minute, Alex Blank, the scorer of the 1-0 goal, grabbed the puck from behind his own goal, got faster and faster on his way towards the Czech goal and finally nailed the puck under the crossbar for the deserved winning goal.
The German team is now temporarily in third place in Group A.
Votes for victory against the Czech Republic
National coach Tobias Abstreiter about the meaning of this victory: “Victory against such good ice hockey nations in a world championship tournament is a beautiful moment. But we won't rest on our laurels. It's always very, very hard to achieve such victories, but it's a nice feeling, also for the boys. This feeling should inspire us for the next games.”
Florian Bugl about the importance of his performance in his career: “This game and my performance are of course very important because this is a very important tournament. Representing your country with a good performance is a really good feeling.”
Alexander Blank about the mood on the bench after the Czech Republic equalized: “We all stayed positive because we played well. We continued to cheer for each other and I think that's the best thing about our team. We are all always positive and that is why we won this game.”
Lineup Germany U20
In the goal Bugl
1st row: Dziambor, Pilu, Volek, Rutkowski, Blank
2st row: Szuber, Münzenberger, Elias, Samanski, Schweiger
3st row: Glötzl, Klein, Burghart, Leonhardt, Eham
4st row: Böttner, Dunham, Petersen, Borzecki, Roßmy
Goals of the game
1:0 Blank 24:29 (Rutkowski, Münzenberger)
1:1 Mysak 35:49 (Spacek,Novak) PP
2:1 Blank 61:20 (Dziambor, Leonhardt)
shots on goal
Germany – 32 (6,16,9/1)
Czechia – 40 (13,19,7/1)
Penalty minutes
Germany – 6 (2,4,0/0)
Czechia – 8 (2,2,4/0)