Kick-off for the DEBselection at the U20 World Championship in Kanata, an ice hockey-mad suburb of the Canadian capital Ottawa. Before the game, NHL star Tim Stützle will get the team in the mood with the starting six, and halfway through the game the DEBselection almost equalized. In the end, the defending champion prevailed. Julius Sumpf, David Lewandowski, Lenny Boos and Timo Ruckdäschel scored for Germany.
The USA proved to be the tough opponents expected at the start of the tournament. DEB-Selection started the first third with a lot of concentration and got off to a good start, even though the Americans initially had more of the game. DEBgoalie stood in the goal Nico Pertuch from the beginning and was able to show the first good saves after just a few minutes. After just over eight minutes, the first goal was scored by Hagens (9th). DEBThe team remained unimpressed and had its first chances to score. Even the second US goal by Perreault (12th) did not change that.
In the second period, the USA also had the better start thanks to Connelly (22nd) and initially extended their lead. Then came the German team's best phase. Julius Swamp (25.) and David Lewandowski (30.) brought the DEBselection came within one goal and then continued to put a lot of pressure on the US goal. Even an equaliser against the tournament favourites was in the air. However, it was the US Americans who were able to score the next goal and pulled ahead to 2:6 from the German perspective by the second break - particularly thanks to the strong performance of the US top formation around strikers Hagens, Perreault and Leonard.
In the final third, Team USA scored again. On the other side, Lenny Boos (46th) gave the German team a boost with his goal, even though the US boys were on the attack again and scored goals eight and nine. Around four minutes before the end, it was Timo Ruckdaechel, who set an offensive accent and scored the fourth goal of the DEBselection. Shortly before the end, the USA finally scored to make the final score 4:10. Even though the result was clear in the end, the German team showed an appealing performance at times.
voicen to the game
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: "Today we implemented a lot of good things that we had set out to do. We are on the right track. We played well and the team noticed that. They know what things are necessary. But ultimately we must not let ourselves be influenced by the opponent's game and let ourselves be distracted from our own line. That will be very important for the next games."
Detailed statistics about the game can be found on the IIHF tournament website.
Striker David Lewandowski: "We played well in the first 30 minutes, we were close to the USA. The game gives us confidence for our upcoming opponents. We will not lose sight of our goal and want to continue tomorrow where we left off in phases of the game today."
The next tournament match for the U20 team is on Saturday evening. At 21:30 they will play against Finland, live and free on MagentaSport.