With four players from German DEL champions Red Bull Munich in their lineup, Team Germany has finished 3rd place in Group B at the IIHF World Championship and advance to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2011.

by Derek O'Brien

SAINT PETERSBURG – After a less-than-stellar start to this year's IIHF Word Championship, Team Germany is off to the quarter-finals, thanks to help from four players who helped Red Bull Munich win their first DEL title this year and a fifth who will be joining the club for the 2016–17 season.

Forwards Dominik Kahun and Yannic Seidenberg and defenceman Daryl Boyle all played key roles on their club's first DEL title, and forward Brooks Macek will try to help the team repeat next season. Captain Michael Wolf retired from the national team after last year's World Championship, otherwise he surely would have been here as well.

“We also have Mads Christensen from Denmark,” Seidenberg pointed out, which means that the Bavarian Red Bulls are sending five players to this year's World Championship quarters. Germany last made it this far in 2011 and Denmark in 2010, the year Germany finished 4th on home ice. 

Of the five players, Seidenberg is the only one who was born in Germany and the only one of the four players on the German team with previous World Championship experience. In fact, the 32-year-old left winger has played in six previous World Championships, but this is the first time he's been to the tournament's elite eight.

“We don't know who we're playing yet, but we know we're in the quarter-finals, so we want to win and keep going,” the younger brother of NHL defenceman Dennis Seidenberg said after Germany finished the group stage with a 4–2 win over Hungary. 

“Boyle and Kahun have both played with the German national team before, they just hadn't played in a World Championship game, but they've got international experience,” Seidenberg said about his Munich teammates. “I just told them to enjoy it.”

The team started slowly with a shootout loss to France and a 5–1 defeat to Finland, but since then has reeled off four wins and a respectable loss to Canada, where they were tied 2–2 after two periods before running out of gas in the third. 

“We had a slow start, couldn't get our game going, but we had a lot of meetings and we just said that we had to play our game, play as a team, and I think we're doing that now,” Kahun said after the team's 4–3 win over the USA, which vaulted them into third place in Group B.

The success has come despite the loss of linemate Tobias Rieder, one of the few NHLers on the German team, who was injured in the Canada game.

“He's a great player and obviously it's a big loss for us. But we play for him and we're playing for Gerrit Fauser, who's also injured. We're one team and they're still part of our team and we play for them as well.”

Twenty-year-old Czech-born Kahun, who just finished his second pro season after playing junior hockey in Canada, is glad to be here and glad to have some of his teammates with him.

“For sure I'm happy those guys are here. We had fun all year and we're showing now that we belong here.”

For 29-year-old Canadian-born Boyle, he is just coming off the first championship of his professional career and his strong two-way play from the back end has earned him a place on the German national team.

“This has probably been the best year of my career. We won the DEL championship – that was a highlight – and then to be invited to contribute here on the German national team is a privilege and I'm happy to wear this uniform.”

Having now played six years in the DEL, including the last three in Munich, Boyle has a good feel for the quality of his Munich club and the rest of the league as well. 

“We're a solid team,” he said of the Red Bulls. “We worked hard all year to win and the guys on our team that were chosen to come here all put in the work and earned it. But the whole German league is getting better and better every year. There are lots of quality teams.”

Indeed, German clubs showed improvement in this season's Champions Hockey League, with five of the six teams making the Round of 32. Munich and Alder Mannheim both won their respective groups, with the Red Bulls going out to eventual Semi-Finalists Lukko Rauma from Finland.

Macek, who signed with the Bavarian-based clubs just days before the start of the World Championship, has played the past three seasons in the DEL for the Iserlohn Roosters, so he is well aware of the talent the team has. 

“I know they're a really good team. They finished first in the regular season and won in the playoffs, so they're a great team so wherever Don (coach Jackson) thinks I can help out, I'll be ready to play.”

A versatile forward who can play centre or wing, Macek gives Jackson options. And after scoring at a consistent pace in Iserlohn (34, 39 and 39 points), the 25-year-old was selected to play in his first World Championship. Early in the tournament he got the chance to play on on a line with new teammate Kahun.

“He's a young player, very energetic and has a great shot. It'll be fun to either play with him or sit on the bench and cheer him on,” Macek joked after a win.

In fact, all four players will be in Munich next season to try to defend the title. That includes Kahun, who is expected at some point to test the waters overseas and try to make an NHL club. 

“We'll see,” he said when asked when that may be. “I have another year on my contract in Munich, so I'll play there next season and then we'll see what happens.”

Red Bull Munich will play their first competitive games of the 2016–17 season in the CHL's Group F against Fribourg-Gotteron from Switzerland and Orli Znojmo, a Czech-based club that plays in the Austrian EBEL.