WJHC Preview: Germany

Last Year – The Germans swept through the Division 1 Group A championships last year to get promoted to the top level.  They went 5-0, outscoring their opponents by 25 goals in the round robin format.

# Returnees – 6 – Henry Haase, Stephan Kronthaler, Nikolas Latta, Andreas Pauli, Tobias Reider, Sebastian Uvira

Key Players – Reider will be the key to this team being able to stay in the top group and avoid regulation.  The Kitchener Rangers’ forward led the Group A tournament in scoring last year with 13 points in 5 games.  Defenseman Tim Bender is the top rated German skater for the upcoming draft.

Watch For – Marvin Cupper, G.  Expect the number one goalie to face a lot of rubber, and this is the type of tournament where a netminder can catch lightning in a bottle (witness Petr Mrazek last year).  He sees a lot of shots playing for the weakest team in the QMJHL (Shawninigan), but has been named one of the three stars for the week in the Q twice already this season.

Prediction:  It is always tough for the bubble teams to move from Division 1 to the Elite division  and stay there, because the team that qualified is in most cases not the same team that comes back the next year.  Germany will be in tough and will probably have their most important game be the final game the team plays, where they will most likely have to avoid relegation back to Division 1 and secure a spot back in the top pool next year.  Don’t count on it.