The German ice hockey juniors are threatened with relegation from the top division at the U20 World Cup in Gothenburg.
National coach Tobias Abstreiter’s team lost to previously winless and goalless Latvia on Saturday in what was probably the decisive game 2:6 (0:3, 1:2, 1:1).
The hope of avoiding relegation against the bottom of the parallel group (best of three mode) and instead making it to the quarter-finals lies in the game against the clearly favored Canadians on Sunday (7.30 p.m./MagentaSport).
After a surprising success against the Finns (4:3), the German team clearly lost against Sweden (0:5). Latvia had suffered three defeats from three games with a total of 0:20 goals, but were clearly better. After the first third, the hope of a German victory was as good as buried. Samuel Schindler (27th) and Norwin Panocha (54th) scored the goals.