2025 Worlds Preview: Germany

It’s the most wonderful, and stressful, time of the year again for women’s hockey fans as the 2025 World Hockey Championships are about to kick off in České Budějovice, Czechia. If you were to ask every fan, player, and management group out there, 99% of them for each team would say their goal is to win the gold medal.

That’s the mindset you want your team to have. For some teams though there’s a personal gold they’re going for, which can range anywhere from 'just win any medal' to 'not get relegated.'

For Team Germany, success would be defined as 'get to the fifth-place game' That’s where they got to last year where they lost 3-2 in overtime to the other German-speaking country in the tournament, Switzerland. Expectations are probably the highest they’ve been since the team had future HHOF goalie Jennifer Harß in net. In 2024 in Utica, Germany went 4-0 in Pool B and they’re back with, mostly, the same group this time around. They’ll have to duke it out for first in Pool B with the quickly rising Swedes, the ever-competitive Japanese, the returning Hungarians, and somewhat newcomers Norway.

Player to Watch

If you’re looking for a player that needs to play hero for Germany I think the easy - and cop out - answer is goaltender Sandra Abstreiter. The past three years she’s been exactly what Germany needs in net: someone who will do their job in the tight defensive German system. It went especially well last year where they nearly upset the defending bronze medal champions Czechia, only losing 1-0. The year prior they gave the USA a scare, only losing 3-0 where the USA didn’t score once at 5v5. Do you see the pattern though? Germany does really well in Pool B play, they get to the quarters, put up a tremendous effort, and scare their opponents, but don’t score.

That’s why instead of cheating and picking the goalie, I’m cheating and picking two players: Lilli and Luisa Welcke. The German twins have been in North America for three straight years honing their craft in the NCAA, first with the University of Maine only to move and play for Boston University. Now if you were to just look at their point totals you wouldn’t be too impressed. They finished top 10 in team scoring with 17 and 16 points apiece with a combined 11 goals. That said, as the future of the German hockey program you’d like to see some promise and I think they’ve started to show it.

At the 2024 WHC the Welcke twins finished third and fourth in team scoring. Then at the most recent Olympic Qualifiers, in a win and go to the Olympics game vs Hungary, Germany won 2-1. The Welcke twins scored both goals to push Germany through to the Olympics. If Germany wants to start making teams very scared of them, the Welcke twins need to be a part of that.

Storyline to Watch

As mentioned above all eyes are going to be on Germany potentially being the next team to upset a Pool A opponent. We haven’t seen an upset in the quarter-finals by a Pool B team since 2022 when the Czechs beat Finland 2-1 in OT. Germany has gotten really close these past two years and while their program doesn’t have the pedigree like Sweden’s, the results have shown that Germany has built a team that plays for each other. Now they need to score for each other, they need to score for Abstreiter. Give that gal some breathing room. If Germany can learn the art of timely scoring they’ll be competing for a bronze medal for only the second time in their history.

Prediction

It’s hard to strike a balance between being realistic and being hopeful based on previous results from Germany. They should be able to handle Japan and Norway giving them two wins there. Hungary is going to be a tough battle just like in the Olympic Qualifiers and Sweden looks ready to take the next step like Czechia did in 2022. If Germany doesn’t finish first in Pool B they’re going to be playing, most likely, one of Canada/USA putting them back in the fifth place game at best. Without seeing the offensive improvements from Germany it’s hard to put them above Sweden who would then have a slightly easier match-up when compared to Canada/USA. The too long, didn’t read boils down to this: Germany will most likely finish second in Pool B and lose in the quarter-final in a close game where their offence doesn’t exist.

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