The Memmingen team played well in the fifth and decisive game of the Oberliga playoffs – but in the end it was not enough against the favorites from Regensburg. Our photo shows a scene from the game on Tuesday in the Memminger hall with Jannik Herm at the bully.
Picture: Siegfried Rebhan
Although the Memminger also played well in the fifth and decisive game of the Oberliga playoffs – but in the end it was not enough against the favorite from Regensburg. Our photo shows a scene from Tuesday’s game in the Memminger Halle with Jannik Herm at the face-off.
Picture: Siegfried Rebhan
How close joy and sorrow can be to each other, the ice hockey team ECDC Memmingen has now experienced on its own body. In the 40. In the fifth minute of the decisive fifth game of the play-off quarter-final against the Eisbaren Regensburg, the Indians from the Allgau region played out a counter-attack strongly: Captain Daniel Huhn took a long pass and played blindly on to forward partner Donat Peter. The latter gave the home goalkeeper no chance and scored the 2:2 equalizer shortly before the second intermission – and he did it while shorthanded! But the cheers of the Maustadter had not yet faded away, when they were already behind again: Overtime goal for the Oberpfalzer by Richard Divis only 26 seconds later. Even before the intermission siren Regensburg added even the 4:2 – a neck blow for the ECDC. Ultimately, Memmingen lost 3:5 (1:1/1:3/1:1). But they had had hope again.
The Indians said goodbye with a great performance in the summer break. Both teams started cautiously. With their first period of pressure, Regensburg took the lead as the home team: Nikola Gajovsky scored to make it 1:0 for the big favorites and main round champions (8. Minute). But the ninth of the table from the Allgau held against it, got better and better going and was rewarded by Jonas Wolter with the 1:1 (19.), who scored completely free standing with a nice shot under the crossbar. Bad luck for Memmingen: Only seconds later, Mark Ledlin missed the chance for the double strike, Peter Holmgren in the goal of the Cathedral City made a brilliant save.
Keeper Vollmer covered with shots
At the beginning of the middle third Indians keeper Joey Vollmer was covered with countless shots, but was always on the post. Only an overtime brought the renewed Regensburg lead, again through Gajovsky: The Czech skated around Vollmer skillfully and slid in effortlessly for the 2-1 lead (33.). It followed the probably game-deciding scene: Indians-defensive corner Nikolaus Meier stopped the broken through Polar Bear Richard Divis with a foul and the referees made a harsh decision: Playing time penalty and five minutes of deficits for Memmingen (36.).
The 50 seconds before the second break were later described by both coaches as "crazy": After the Memmingen equalizer to 2:2 by Peter (40.), the Indians seemed to have a psychological advantage. But instead of a draw, the team went into the dressing room with a two-goal deficit: Regensburg scored twice to make it 4:2. "That was a Watsch’n for Memmingen," summed up Eisbaren coach Max Kaltenhauser.
Praise from the opponent
And from this the Memminger did not recover: Although Wolter succeeded with his second goal of the evening after beautiful Vorarbeit of Philipp de Paly still the connecting goal (53.). But when ECDC coach Sergej Wabmiller put all his eggs in one basket towards the end and took the goalkeeper off the ice for a sixth outfielder, Regensburg’s Constantin Ontl struck and scored into the orphaned Memmingen goal for the 5:3 final score (60.). Once again, joy and sorrow were close together: On the one hand, the cathedral city dwellers celebrated, on the other hand, the Allgau dwellers hung their heads.
ECDC Memmingen delivers a good game in a difficult situation
"It was a great, interesting and exciting series," said Wabmiller, adding, "The length of the game hurt us. We have now had eight games in 17 days, which is then a question of strength."He said he was proud of his team for showing character in the playoffs as underdogs and pushing the top seed to its limits. "It’s been a tough season, but now we’ve shown our true colors." For this there was also praise from the opponent Kaltenhauser: "Memmingen was hot. You could see in every game that they were desperate to win. They really demanded everything from us – hats off to this performance."