The German U20 national team won their second game at the U20 World Championship in Edmonton on Wednesday evening (local time). In the end it was 4:2 against Austria. Alexander Blank recorded a hat trick and an assist and was therefore involved in all four German goals.
Compared to the first game against the USA, U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter's boys played with the opposite team this time: Team Germany was the clear favorite, also because the Austrians have not yet won a single game at a U20 World Cup.
Nevertheless, our neighbors initially took the lead in the first third. Senna Peeters took advantage of the first power play of the evening and scored with a perfect shot to make it 0-1. Shortly before, Bennet Rossmy had the first opportunity to score DEBteam when he received the puck alone in front of the Austrian goal.
After conceding the goal, the German team continued to play with concentration and without hesitation and was able to create further chances. Josef Eham then equalized after a pass from Alexander Blank, who played the target across the Austrian backline (9th minute).
From a German perspective, the second third did not start according to plan. Austria came out of the locker room better and took advantage of the disarray in the German defense to take the lead again through Jonas Dobnig in the 22nd minute. But the German response was not long in coming. A shot from Adrian Klein deflected off Alexander Blank and equalized again (24').
Florian Bugl in the German goal prevented Austria from taking the lead again. The goalie from the Straubing Tigers parried a penalty from Peeters in the 26th minute as well as a dangerous opportunity from Luca Auer just a minute later.
On the other hand, the German team used a power play again: Alexander Blank was there again. The Düsseldorfer puts Germany in the lead for the first time with his second goal of the evening (24th). Five minutes later, Blank increased the score to 4:2, completing his hat trick.
The final period remained without a goal DEB-Team played cleverly for the last twenty minutes and kept the lead. Even though both teams had some good scenes, there was no further goal celebration.
Germany lived up to their role as favorites against Austria on Wednesday evening and secured their first three-pointer at this U20 World Cup. The next game in Edmonton is on Saturday evening (local time). Then it goes for that DEBteam against Switzerland. The game will again be broadcast live by Magenta Sport – from 4 a.m., German time.
Voices about the game:
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: “I think we started the game quite well, but then we fell behind due to a power play goal from the Austrians. Nevertheless, we always believed in victory. The mood was always good in the gang and in the team and we did a lot of things right, which were crucial for the win tonight.”
Captain Luca Münzenberger: "I think we played really well. We were strong defensively. "Blanki" obviously performed superbly, scored four points - three goals and one assist. We didn't get off to a good start, but we were much better in the second period. Of course the power play helped. It just worked. In the end we held on to the lead and deserved to win."
Striker Alexander Blank: “It was a great team effort from us today. We all did the best. Of course I'm happy that I scored these three goals, but I think the three points together with the team are more important. We now have to play the same way again against Switzerland in order to place ourselves in the best possible position.”