Team Canada Trounces Germany at World Juniors

However, the score is misleading, and it’s vital to note that this is in no way representative of the true strength of German. They have been hit hard by Covid-19, both before the tournament and during the Edmonton bubble, meaning that they started today’s game with nine dressed forwards and only five dressed defenders. Their starting goalie, alongside Lukas Reichel, was infected before they flew to Edmonton and is unable to take part in the tournament altogether. And they played a hard-fought game against Finland less than 22 hours before puck drop. This was a husk of a team that Canada beat. Outside the lack of manpower in the German team, Canada also took advantage of a few other areas, to win the game in such a convincing fashion.

Gutwrenching Goals By Team Canada

German game out to the game with the odds stacked against them by a near unheard off amount, and they were only made worse two minutes into the game when Kaiden Guhle scored. Germany was in no position to chase the game, but they almost got back into it fast. Tim Stutzle got a wonderful chance to score, but the German superstar was robbed by Devon Levi.

They even had a chance on a powerplay, but instead of a tying goal, Canada scored shorthanded. A major momentum swinger, that Germany did overcome when they got one back from John-Jason Peterka, which ignited some hope. However, just as it looked like Germany were back into the game, Canada put in another dagger to the hopes of the Germans when Phillip Tomasino scored a minute later. A bitter pill to swallow, that got even worse when Canada scored a buzzer-beater in the most literal sense of the word. With 0.2 seconds left of the first period, Payton Krebs scored a goal where the IIHF feed might have been delayed which gave the refs a false perception of how much time was left when the puck crossed the line. On the TSN and on the arena scoreboard it showed that time had expired, but somehow the goal stood.

These types of goals can break the most strong-willed teams. On a team like Germany who never was expected to win this game and had it as a fine tuner for the more important games, the understandable crumbled in the final two periods, where things started snowballing out of control.

German Goaltending Woes

A lot of this game is something that can be called unique and really unfortunate circumstances that shouldn’t worry anyone in Germany at all. They played a strong Canadian team with a husk of a team. The score doesn’t matter. There is, however, one element that is a long-term worry for Germany in this tournament. Their goaltending is looking horrendous. One reason for this is that their intended starter is out of the tournament with Covid-19 like a lot of other German stars, but with that being said, Arno Tiefensee has been really bad this tournament in both games Germany played so far.

Tonight he allowed four goals in the first period. All shots he should have saved. The first went short side on him, due to poor positioning on the near post. On the second he mishandled the puck badly, which allowed Dawson Mercer to score shorthanded. The third was a nice shot from Tomasino, but nothing great. The fourth is the worst as a weak shot from Dylan Cozens that was spilled and the rebounds ended on Krebs stick for the goal.

That was his night done and in comes Jonas Gahr, who neither were able to impress. He allowed twelve goals, and while some were just nice plays, he did also allow a few soft goals. In the third period, he also allowed five goals before he made a single save. That just isn’t good enough. It is worth noting that he isn’t a goalie that should ever take part in the juniors for Germany given his level of normal play is near the third tier of German hockey.

The bad goaltending, while it’s understandable to a degree has to change for them if they are to have a chance in this tournament. Especially from Tiefensee, who needs to look much sharper in their games against Slovakia and Switzerland. If he isn’t, Germany will be going home after those games.

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