Colorado Springs - a city located at an altitude of 1.840 meters near Colorado on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. This is where the U17 national team of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund played a 5-nation tournament at the beginning of August. The games against the USA, Slovakia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic were played in the Ed Robson Arena, which is located in the middle of the Colorado College campus. The Colorado College Tigers play there in the regular ice hockey season in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
U17 national coach Philip Kipp and his team traveled to the United States for this tournament with the 2006 class. After the last two tournaments for this age group in Finland and Norway unfortunately had to be canceled due to the pandemic, the DEB-Young talent squad nominated during a review in April in Füssen. In addition, the U15 players Lukas Stuhrmann (goalkeeper), Carlos Handel (defender) and Dustin Willhöft (striker) were given the opportunity to prove themselves at this tournament. For these young talent players as well as the strikers Eden Hofverberg and Maximilian Oswald, these were the first international matches in the Adler jersey.
In total, the German young talent team led by U17 national coach Philip Kipp completed three training sessions and five games including the preparatory game in the Ed Robson Arena. After significant defeats against the USA (8:1 and 10:1) and Slovakia (8:2), this was possible DEB-Young talent team secured their first victory in the tournament in the game against strong Swiss. The German U17 national team also showed a solid performance against strong Czechs, but still had to admit defeat 1:4 in the end.
“The tournament was an important experience for the players as only competitions at this level show our best players where they need to change their game. In league play, our players often achieve good results with suboptimal habits. Here, seemingly small inattentions immediately result in consequences from the opponent - this is an invaluable experience in the long-term development of the players. Now it's about every player taking as much of it with them to their home club and continuing to work on themselves. Overall, we can be very satisfied with the performance development during the tournament week! The team gradually implemented the content of the course better and achieved a victory at the end and was able to keep the game open until the final phase against the eventual tournament winners,” said U17 national coach Philip Kipp after the instructive week with the German young talent team .
In the final match of the tournament, which also turned out to be a game for first place, the Czechs surprised the USA and secured the tournament title with a 1:6 victory.
Team manager Julius Werner also sums up the tournament positively - “The tournament was a valuable experience for both the players and the staff. The college arena and the surrounding campus offered excellent conditions. First and foremost, I would like to thank the organizers USA Hockey on behalf of the entire team, who ensured that the tournament ran smoothly with optimal organization on site. We are also happy that we were able to finish the tournament without any major injuries.”