Powell River Kings centre Noah Samanski represented his home country of Germany in the recently concluded 2025 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Ottawa, thoroughly enjoying the experience.
“It’s always an honour to represent Germany,” said Samanski. “I grew up there. I love my country.”
Samanski received the call last fall to join the German nationals, having been in contact with the coaches over the years. After his selection to the team, he travelled to Charlottetown, where the team practiced and had a game, and then they went to Moncton for another game, along with more practicing.
On December 16, the team travelled to Ottawa and spent more time preparing for the big tournament.
Samanski said he knows most of the players on the German team, so it was like a big homecoming.
“It was fun to see all the guys again,” he added.
In tournament action, the German team first faced the United States. Samanski said it was a tough game.
“We played well for the first two periods and the score was 3-2 for the Americans for a short time,” said Samanski. “However, it got out of hand, and we gave up some unnecessary goals. We lost 10-4. It shouldn’t have been a 10-goal game for the Americans, but it happens.”
The next competition was Finland, and Samanski said the Germans held their ground pretty well. Going into the late stages of the game, it was 2-1 for the Finns and they scored an empty net goal for a 3-1 final. Samanski said his team had a good defensive effort in the game.
“That’s our system; that’s our game,” said Samanski. “We did a pretty good job.”
Next came Canada. Samanski said the contest was special.
“We were playing in front of 18,000 fans,” said Samanski. “We started really well and then Canada got a powerplay goal, going up 1-0. The fans were loud.
“With five minutes left to go in the game, Canada scored a lucky goal and went up 2-0. They then scored a third goal with two seconds left. We played pretty well, and I was pleased with our performance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a point out of it, but we were so proud of ourselves playing against Canada and we got a lot of confidence out of the game.”
The final game in round-robin action was against Latvia. Germany had a 2-0 lead in the game but the Latvians, who defeated Canada in a shootout, came back and tied the game. The two teams exchanged goals in the third period and Latvia won in overtime, qualifying for the quarter finals. Germany then had to play the relegation game against Kazakhstan and the Germans found themselves down 3-1.
“We knew we just had to step up a bit,” said Samanski. “We got a power play, and then a five-on-three and we scored one, and scored again to make it 3-3. In the third period we scored another power-play goal. Our power play and penalty kill was pretty special in the tournament. We had one of the best penalty kills and power plays in the whole tournament.”
Because Germany won the relegation game 4-3, they qualified for the 2026 world juniors. Kazakhstan will be out of the tournament next year and will have to work to requalify from the lower division.
Samanski will age out before the next world championship, so he will not be able to play for the German juniors at the world level again.
Germany is producing some great hockey players, such as Edmonton Oilers’ forward Leon Draisaitl, who is the National Hockey League’s leading goal scorer, and second in points behind Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. Tim Stützle, from the Ottawa Senators, is also a great German player, scoring at more than a point per game in the 2024/2025 NHL season.
Samanski said that while soccer is the main sport in Germany, hockey is growing, and his country is producing a lot of good, young players.
Samanski came to the Kings partway through the season and is the second in his family to play for the club. His brother Neal was with the Kings from 2017 to 2019.
Samanski comes from a hockey family, with his father having been a player. He has another brother, Joshua, who played in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland over the holidays and advanced into the final. Joshua also played for the German national team in the world championships in 2021 and 2022.
Samanski’s father, who is Canadian, got his start playing hockey in this country and served as an inspiration for his sons, said Samanski.
In terms of his future, Samanski said he’d like to continue playing hockey. He said he doesn’t have any specific plans, other than finishing the season with the Kings. He has been scoring goals, netting six in eight games here.
“It’s always nice to score some goals but I’m just trying to help the team as much as possible,” said Samanski. “The team comes first. My teammates are awesome.”
Samanski and his Kings teammates are on the road this weekend for games in Nanaimo on Friday, Janaury 10, and Victoria on Janaury 11.
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