The German U20 national team lost its third game at the IIHF U20 World Championship in Ottawa (Canada) on Sunday, despite a strong performance against hosts Canada, 0:3 (0:1, 0:0, 0:2). Until the 55th minute, only one goal separated the two teams, then the hosts decided the game with a rebound off the boards and an empty-net goal.
The starting goalie in the lineup changed compared to the last game: Nico Pertuch was in goal from the beginning, his backup was Lennart Neiße. Linus Vieillard got a break. Rio Kaiser and Elias Pul also moved into the lineup for Kilian Kühnhauser and Paul Vinzens.
The Canadians started with a lot of pressure, tried to put the German team under pressure and created their first scoring opportunities. But the DEBselection defended itself and held strong from the beginning. But the German team conceded a goal after ten minutes while playing shorthanded – Oliver Bonk scored to give the Canadians a 1-0 lead after only 25 seconds of being on the ice with one more man. Three minutes later, the hosts had another shot on goal during the power play, but hit the post. DEBselection continued to fight and had chances to equalize the game during their own power play.
At the beginning of the middle period, the Canadians were again in the power play, but failed to take advantage of it. Gavin McKenna missed the goal in the 26th minute when he was free. Shortly afterwards, Nico Pertuch was on hand to stop a shot with his shoulder. Nick Maul had DEBselection had the best chance in the 29th minute, but failed due to the rail of the Canadian GoaliesNoah Samanski had another chance to equalize during the power play, but the German team went into the break one goal behind after 40 minutes.
In the third period, the Canadians increased the pressure on the German goal, but Nico Pertuch held the DEBselection remained in the game until the 55th minute and kept the German hopes of equalizing aliveBut then the puck bounced off the boards after a shot by Caden Price, hitting the German goalkeeper and from there into the net, giving the hosts a two-goal lead. The Canadians put the finishing touches on the game with an empty-net goal by Mathieu Cataford three seconds before the final whistle.
Full Statistics for the game there is on the IIHF tournament website.
The German team's tournament continues with the final preliminary round match on Monday, December 30th at 21:30 p.m. (German time) against Latvia.
Voices about the game
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: "We knew that we were facing a strong Canadian team today that wanted to win the game early. Nevertheless, we managed to stay in the game for a long time and give ourselves the chance to win. The boys fought very well again and showed a lot of passion. The belief in victory was there until the end, I and we are very proud of that - unfortunately, in the end, it was not enough again. Tomorrow we want to build on the performances of the last two games, then we have a good chance of winning the game against the Latvians."
attacker Julius Sumpf: "The disappointment is of course great because we were so close. We had the chance to take points from the game for 55 minutes. We can be proud of our team performance and must build on that tomorrow. If we can repeat the performance from the Finland and Canada game, then we have a good chance of beating the Latvians. We want to secure the points tomorrow to continue to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals."
The game plan DEB-Selection at the U20 World Championship in Ottawa (Canada):
December 26.12.2024, 20 | 30:XNUMX p.m. (German time) | USA – Germany 10:4 (2:0, 4:2, 4:2)
27.12.2024 | 21:30 (German time) | Germany – Finland 1:3 (0:1, 1:1, 0:1)
30.12.2024 | 01:30 am (German time) | Canada – Germany 3:0 (1:0, 0:0, 2:0)
30.12.2024 | 21:30 (German time) | Germany – Latvia
All German games and the knockout phase will be broadcast live and free of charge on MagentaSport.