It wasn’t a must-win game for Canada, really, but it kind of felt like it was. And, much to coach Dale Hunter’s relief, goalie Joel Hofer, starting for the first time, delivered a clutch performance when the team needed him the most. 
 
The result was that Canada returned to form and played an intense, puck-pressure game, defeating Germany 4-1 to move into a first-place tie in Group B with the United States. The win also guaranteed both Canada and the United States a spot in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

"We just wanted to get back to playing good defence, and moving from defence to offence quickly," noted Canadian defenceman Liam Foudy. "That was the big thing. We were motivated today."

"We knew we needed to dial in and come out with a better start," Jamie Drysdale added. "We were ready to play right away today, and I think it showed. We battled, and Hofer stood on his head. We're looking forward to tomorrow's game now."
 
Both teams still have one game to play, tomorrow, Canada taking on the Czechs in a much-anticipated night game while the Germans play Russia in the afternoon hoping to avoid the relegation round.

"We want to win the next game against Russia," captain Moritz Seider said "We don't care about what other teams do. We have to recover quickly now and get our legs ready. We had too many turnovers today. Canada has a good team and took advantage of their chances."
 
Indeed, Canada came out strong in this one, which isn’t surprising given that it was 13-0-0 all-time against Germany in U20 play. Despite being without two of its top players, Alexis Lafreniere and Joe Veleno, it controlled most of the opening period and generated most of the scoring chances.

As important, the Canadians scored the first goal for the first time this tournament, and it came after a period of prolonged pressure in the German end. Kevin Bahl’s point shot was blocked by a trio of bodies in front, and Nolan Foote was right there to wire the rebound over the glove of Hendrik Hane at 11:50.
 
But the first half of the second belonged to Germany – and Hofer. He made at least three vital saves to keep the score 1-0 and give his team a shot of needed confidence. But for the Germans, they had to rue their lack of touch around the goal. 
 
They had a two-on-one early on, but Tim Stutzle’s pass to Justin Schutz was nicely stopped by Hofer with his right pad. A short time later, Yannik Valenti had a great chance down the right wing, but he shot directly into Hofer’s midsection. And the best chance of all happened when Jared McIsaac broke his stick taking a shot at the German blue line. John Peterka got the puck and skated the length of the ice, taking a nice shot that Hofer snared with his glove.
 
Soon after that last save, Canada made it 2-0. Foudy got the puck at the German blue line and skated in unmolested before snapping a shot through traffic to the short side at 12:24."I wasn't sure what happened," he explained. "I kept walking in and walking in. The goalie didn't even see it, and I managed to put it in."
 
Right after, the Germans took two quick penalties, and Canada made it 3-0 on a two-man advantage. This time it was a power blast from Calen Addison from the middle of the ice. A game that might have been tied but for Hofer's strong play was now thoroughly in Canada’s control after 40 minutes.

Germany scored its only goal late in the game with a two-man advantage, Valenti with a quick blast that eluded Hofer at 18:53.

Ty Dellandrea added an empty netter with 9.2 seconds left to close out the scoring.