The German U20 national team started the Ice Hockey World Championships in Halifax and Moncton with a defeat. The team of national coach Tobias Abstreiter lost 0:1 (0:1, 0:0, 0:0) to Sweden, third in the World Cup, in the first group game on Tuesday.
Elias Pettersson scored the winning goal for the favored Swedes with 22 seconds left in the first period. The selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) fought bravely, but missed too many opportunities, especially in the final section.
On Thursday night (12:30 a.m. CET), the next big caliber of junior ice hockey awaits with defending champions and record world champions Canada. Other opponents in Group A are Austria after a day of rest on Friday (10:30 p.m. CET) and the Czech Republic on Saturday (7:30 p.m. CET/all MagentaSport).
The top four teams in each group qualify for the Quarterfinals. The two fifth play in the “best of three” mode (two wins are necessary) for relegation.
“We definitely want to stay in Group A,” said Abkampfer, who had led the U20s to the quarter-finals at the last World Cup, as a goal in the run-up to the tournament in Canada: “And then we’ll see where it ends. It really anything is possible.”