David Schlegel meets Tom Kühnhackl

"I know we ended up at the last place, but we still had a pretty good tournament. We lost to Finland and the United States, but the other games were very close ones", says Tom Kühnhackl, the son of Erich, who is considered to be the greatest German hockey player ever. Erich was present at the tournament to watch his son.

Germany did not start out well. Goalie Philipp Grubauer had only one save when he was replaced by Niklas Treutle after the fourth goal in a game against Switzerland. "The first period against Switzerland was the turning point of the whole championship. We played very stupid and were down 0-4 very soon. We came back within the goal, but if we had played that period better, the result against the Swiss could have been very different," says the Edmonton Oilers draft pick.

He says he believed Germany would play in the quarterfinals instead of Switzerland. "We are on the same level as Switzerland, but they just do not fail in crucial moments."

Germany heavily outshot Slovakia. In the first two periods Germany doubled the number of shots Slovakia had. "We had plenty of shots and a lot of chances in that game. I think we were a better team. I personally missed a penalty shot. We should have at least three points from the games against the Swiss and Slovaks," says Kühnhackl, who now plays for Windsor Spitfires, an OHL champion and Memorial Cup winner.

Germany was ahead 2-1 shortly at the end of the game against the Czech Republic. However, the Czechs turned the game over and sent Germany to B-Pool in the final minutes. "We made some stupid mistakes against the Czechs, they scored in the last minute," Kühnhackl adds.

In spite of the relegation he has some good memories from Buffalo. "I really enjoyed the games against Finland and Team USA. Both have very strong teams, they are so fast and skilled. The games against them in an almost full HSBC Arena were awesome. People cheered, screamed and created great atmosphere", Kühnhackl, who may also participate at the U20 championship in the upcoming season, concludes.

Tweets by @eurohockey