Tara Bach Brings Her Canadian Game To Her German Roots At U-18 World Championships

A few months ago, Tara Bach was celebrating a Canadian national championship as a member of Team Ontario Red alongside 12 members of Canada's U-18 national team. Born in Europe however, Bach lived in Germany until age five, and is now back to represent the nation at the U-18 Division 1A World Championships.

Bach would have been in the mix for a spot with Team Canada, but she only became an official Canadian citizen this past Fall, after Hockey Canada's selection camps. The tug of the nation she grew up in, and currently lives in, with the nation of her family lineage has pulled Bach between Canada and Germany on the ice, but she's proud to represent Team Germany.

"It would be an incredible honour to be considered for Team Canada, of course, but especially as a goalie I may be able to make more of a difference for Germany," says Bach. "I also always feel an immense amount of pride getting to put on the German jersey because of the connection that my family and I have there

The 5-foot-10 netminder players for the Stoney Creek Sabres in the OWHL U-22 Elite league, the top junior women's hockey league in Canada. She won an Esso Cup with the Sabres at the U-18 level, and also won a bronze medal with Germany at the Youth Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea in 2024. Bach's journey with Germany all started after an email from her father to the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund, Germany's ice hockey federation, to let them know his daughter was playing hockey in Canada, but would like to keep playing for Germany an option. That summer she attended the U-16 camp and played a handful of games against Austria, and since then, has been back at least once a year for camps and tournaments.

Pulling on the German jersey at her first official IIHF U-18 World Championship event is an immense honor for Bach, who will attend Mercyhurst University next season, enrolling a year early as a 2008-born player.

"Representing your country on the international stage, wearing the jersey, hearing the national anthem is hard to describe," says Bach. "It is an incredible honour, of course, but to think that so many Olympians and World Champions have worn this jersey fills me with a sense of pride and responsibility to work harder than ever before, whether it is for an international friendly game or a World Championship."

"Also just getting to this stage means so much because of all of the work that has been put in to get here. Being able to play next to the top players from all of these different countries and knowing that I was selected to be here validates all of the effort to make it to this point," she continued.

Bach has followed another German netminder the past few seasons, watching the international success of Sandra Abstreiter, who was named the Best Goaltender at the 2024 World Championships in Utica, New York. Abstreiter is also the only German currently in the PWHL, serving as the third goalie for the Montreal Victoire. Bach hopes someday to follow that path and play in the world's best league.

"It’s amazing that the PWHL exists now," she said. "Having a league where all of the top players get to play against each other and having success with that has been something that I think all of us having been looking forward to for a long time. Being able to see players and people I look up to like Sandra play in the league gives me hope that one day I could get to that level as well."

Prior to the PWHL, Bach's first goaltending influences came from a predecessor of the league in the CWHL's Toronto Furies. Her family would take her to Furies' games where she'd see Christina Kessler, who coached her from her first season of Novice hockey in net, and Sami Jo Small, whose camps she has attended for many years.

While Tara Bach's hockey career is still in its infancy, she's neither focused on the past or the future. Instead, she's focused on the present moment, and contributing to Germany's chances at the U-18 World Championships Division 1A tournament with hopes of helping her nation earn promotion so she can face the best in the world next season.

"I want to be a good teammate, contributing to the team in whichever role I am needed," Bach said of her role with Germany. "It was hard to watch the 2-1 loss in the relegation game on TV last year. I wanted to be there to help support the team. Hopefully this year we can return to the top division to play against some of my Canadian friends next year. I want to play my best in whichever games I get the opportunity to play in order to help the team as much as I can. Whatever my role may be I want to play it to the best of my abilities in order to help my team achieve our final goal of getting back to the top division next year."