Mats Geppert’s goal on a penalty shot awarded in overtime gave Germany a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Czechia at the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Men’s World Championship. It was the Germans’ first win of the tournament and keeps alive their hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals. It was also Czechia’s first defeat, and clouds the picture of the top three teams in Group B.

“I was praying for him and he made a really good move and put it in,” German defenceman Darian Rolsing recalled. “It’s perfect, yeah, we win!”

Czechia led 2-1 late in regulation time but the Germans tied it in the final minute to force overtime. The Czechs had a decisive 42-24 edge in shots, but German goaltender Max Bolle made a number of nice saves and got some help from his goalposts as well.

“I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed,” an exhausted Bolle smiled after the game. “I couldn’t really believe it in the first place, but I just stayed in the moment and I’m just thankful for the whole team.”

The Czechs exploded out of the gate, drew a penalty in the first minute, and connected on the power play before the game was two minutes old. Ondrej Ruml made a perfect cross-point pass to tee up a Jakub Vanecek one-timer, and the Tri-City Americans' D-man made no mistake, placing his shot just inside the post before Bolle could slide all the way across.

But goals would not continue to come that easily for the Czechs the rest of the way. They threw a high number of pucks toward the German goal but Bolle made several nice saves and they also found iron a few times.

​“I don’t think our start to the game was very good,” said Czech forward Oliver Sichtar. “We scored, but then we didn’t win enough battles, we didn’t dump the pucks in and I think that decided the game today.”

Germany tied it just shy of the first period’s midpoint when a flick of the wrists from long range by Jonas Schwarz found its way through the padding of a screened Marek Sklenicka.

Early in the second period, the teams traded posts – Luis Becker for Germany and Vanecek yet again – but the score remained tied.

It felt like the Czechs were due for a bounce in their favour and it finally came with 4:07 to play in the middle frame. Sichtar carried the puck into the German zone on the rush, and Bolle appeared at first to handle his shot, but the puck eventually slid out the back of the goalie’s equipment and crawled over the line. Hartl got his stick on the puck to make sure it went in, but it was Sichtar’s goal to give Czechia a 2-1 lead through two periods.

“It was a really lucky goal for us,” Sichtar described. “It was a 2-on-1 rush and I just wanted to shoot it on the pads and maybe get a rebound, and it somehow got behind the goalie and rolled into the net. I thought maybe our luck was going to change after that, but it didn’t.”

Early in the third period, the Czechs pushed hard to widen their lead but Bolle was equal to the task. Then Germany had a couple of chances on the power play but were unable to connect.

“It’s better,” Bolle said about getting lots of shots. “It helps me get in the flow and it’s more fun.”

With just over six minutes to play, Petr Tomek hit the goalpost for Czechia, and moments later, Max Calce got a clear-cut breakaway the other direction but Sklenicka stopped both the initial shot and the rebound.

In the final two minutes, with Bolle on the bench for an extra attacker, the Germans had probably their best offensive push of the game and it finally paid off. Rolsing’s shot from the point hit a screened Sklenicka, but the rebound went back into the crowd of players in front of him and Nikita Block shot it in with 27 seconds remaining.

“I was just trying to shoot the puck because they were defending pretty well and the shot came through and we did the rebound,” Rolsing described.

Czech coach Jan Tomajko challenged for goaltender interference but the goal stood, resulting in a delay-of-game penalty and a German power play, which carried into overtime.

The Germans had some looks on the power play but Sklenicka used his blocker to handle a couple of shots. With the teams back at even strength, the puck was bouncing in the crease behind Sklenicka and Dominick Byrtus used his hand to clear it out of danger, but he was ruled to have covered the puck with his hand, resulting in a penalty shot. On the shot, Gepper, the German captain, made no mistake, snapping the puck just inside the post.