The German U20 national team, coached by U20 national team player Tobias Abstreiter, lost 20:1 (3:0, 1:1, 1:0) to Finland in their second game at the IIHF U1 World Championship in Ottawa (Canada) on Friday. The only German goal scorer was Clemens Sager, who, together with Lennart Neiße, replaced Elias Pul and Nico Pertuch in today's line-up.
The DEBteam started bravely and created strong chances in front of the Finnish goal from the start. After just five minutes, the Finns were in the better position and narrowly missed the early goal. Julius Sumpf had the best chance for Team Germany up to that point during this period of pressure from the Finns, when he failed to beat the Finnish goalie on his own. The Scandinavians continued to increase the pressure and finally took a 18-1 lead at halftime in the 0th minute through Emil Pieniniemi.
The German U20 started the middle section with a Powerplay and continued their efforts to equalize at 5-on-5. It was precisely during this strong phase that the Finns used a counterattack and increased their lead to 2-0. The following Coach's Challenge by Abstreiter was decided against the German team, the shorthanded game had no consequences. Back to full strength Julius Sumpf initiated a counterattack, which Sager finished with the goal (28th minute). Neither a German nor a Finnish power play towards the end of the third changed the score, so the score was 1:2 at halftime.
In the third period, both teams continued to play at a high pace. The Finns initially came dangerously close to the goal, but Simon Seidl had the biggest chance in the 48th minute for the equalizer. But Finland's goalie defused this attempt and kept his team in the lead. After surviving a shorthanded game, Ruckdäschel had the next opportunity. Even a power play shortly before the final whistle did not bring another goal for the DEBteam. Jesse Kiiskinen made the decision with the empty-net goal (59th).
Best DEBplayer was Linus Vieillard.
Full game statistics there is on the IIHF tournament website.
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: "The commitment, the will and the passion of every single player were very good over 60 minutes today. The boys supported each other - they remained stable even when playing with fewer players. We had chances to tie the game against a strong opponent in the second and third periods. I hope that gives us confidence for the next games. We are now preparing intensively for that."