The German ice hockey juniors also lost their third game at the U20 World Cup in the USA.
Despite a good start, national coach Tobias Abstreiter’s team lost 8-1 to the favored Swedes, conceding four goals in the second half broke the resistance of the German selection.
Elias Pul (8th) made it 1-1 and brought Germany back into the game after conceding an early goal (2nd). But the pressure from the Swedes was ultimately too high, and a goalkeeper change for the Germans from Linus Vieillard to Lukas Stuhrmann at the beginning of the final third didn’t help.
At the start there was an expected 3:6 against hosts and defending champions USA, then a 1:4 against Slovakia followed. The U20’s goal is to stay in the top division, and Germany will most likely have to survive in the playoff against the bottom of parallel group B.
The best four teams in the two tournament groups qualify for the quarterfinals. The final group game is against Switzerland on Tuesday (8:00 p.m./MagentaSport).