Friday in Cologne, Sunday at home against Schwenningen

For the Straubing Tigers today, Thursday, the trip to tomorrow’s guest performance in Cologne is on the program. On Sunday, the team of head coach Tom Pokel will meet the Schwenninger Wild Wings in the home ice rink at the Pulverturm.

The Kölner Haie started the current season with a relatively balanced record, they won against Wolfsburg, Augsburg and Iserlohn after extra time, in the game against Bietigheim the team of head coach Uwe Krupp lost after a penalty shoot-out. Defeats after regular playing time against the top teams from Munich, Mannheim and Berlin contrasted with clear victories against Krefeld, Nuremberg and Schwenningen. After a pre-season that did not meet the demands of the Haie as eight-time German champions, there was a major upheaval (as far as possible) in the Cologne squad: The goalie Justin Pogge, who still has a working paper valid until 2022, is supplemented by the ex-Bremerhaven German-Czech Tomas Pöpperle as a replacement for Hannibal Weitzmann who had migrated to Iserlohn. In defense, the departures of Dominik Tiffels, Kevin Gagné and Simon Gnyp by the 27-year-old Canadian Patrick Sieloff (previously Hartford Wolf Pack / AHL), the experienced Norwegian Jonas Holos (previously Linköping HC / SWE), who, however, was due to a serious one Knee injury has not yet played a game and was compensated by Alex Roach. The 28-year-old German-Canadian who was born in Schongau had paused the entire 2020/21 season after a knee injury at the end of October 2019 and received a follow-up contract for the current season with the Kölner Haien after a successful try-out, but only one game for the Rhinelander completed. In the storm, Frederik Tiffels, Neu-Straubinger Jason Akeson and James Sheppard left the Kölner Haie, who together recorded a total of 112 points in the preseason. In addition to Jon Matsumoto, the newcomers Maxi Kammerer (previously Düsseldorfer EG), Mark Olver (previously Eisbären Berlin), Quinton Howden (previously Malmö Redhawks / SWE) as well as Andreas Thuresson (previously Schwenninger Wild Wings) should ensure offensive penetration. The latter is currently at the top of the team’s internal goalscorer and scorer list with six hits and four assists, with the Swede alone contributing three goals to the overtime success against the Iserlohn Roosters on matchday seven.

After the Schwenninger Wild Wings narrowly missed the playoffs in the preseason due to the quotient regulation, sports director Christoph Kreutzer significantly rebuilt the squad of head coach Niklas Sundblad’s squad in some positions in the off-season. What is striking here is the comparatively high proportion of foreign players with Scandinavian origins: four out of five new importers come from Sweden or Norway and, together with the Swedish keeper Joacim Eriksson, represent the northern European faction in the Schwenninger team. The latter forms after the departure of David Cerveny in the direction of Freiburg in the DEL2 together with Marvin Cüpper, who came from the Krefeld Penguins to Schwenningen, the goalkeeper duo of the Wild Wings for the 2021/22 season. In the defense department, the two ex-Straubingers Dylan Yeo (now Rouen / FRA) and Benedikt Brückner (EV Landshut / DEL2) as well as Christopher Fischer and Emil Kristensen were separated. Swede Niclas Burström (previously Skellefteå AIK / SWE) and Canadian John Ramage from the reigning champion from Berlin as well as Maximilian Adam (previously Grizzlys Wolfsburg) and Peter Spornberger (EHC Freiburg / DEL2) came as replacements. On the offensive, the two Weiß brothers Alexander and Daniel as well as the two top scorers Andreas Thuresson and Troy Bourke left the club. With Max Görtz (previously Grizzlys Wolfsburg), Ken André Olimb (previously Düsseldorfer EG) and Patrik Lundh (previously Linköping HC), two Swedes and a Norwegian were signed for the storm. This is completed by Alexander Karachun (previously Düsseldorfer EG) and the two youngsters Philip Feist and Manuel Alberg. The Spink twins Tylor and Tyson stayed or had extended their contracts early. The Schwenninger Sturm has not yet developed much impact, with 23 hits so far, the Wild Wings are the bottom of the league in this statistic, as in the table. Only two wins against Nuremberg and Bietigheim in eleven games result in a point quotient of 0.545 and thus rank 15.

The Straubing Tigers go into the coming weekend with a home win against the Krefeld Pinguine in their backs, with which the Gäubodenstädter were able to end their six-game series of defeats and want to get points again on Friday in Cologne and on Sunday in front of their home crowd against Schwenningen. Head coach Tom Pokel has all the players at their disposal, and the coaching team decides on the final line-up and the goalkeeper question, as usual, at short notice.

The Kölner Haie are currently in sixth place in the table with three wins and three defeats after regular time as well as three wins and one defeat after overtime or shootout with 16 points from ten games (PPG: 1.6). The Schwenninger Wild Wings are currently in last place in the table with one win and eight defeats after regular time as well as one win and one defeat after extra time or penalty shoot-out with six points from eleven games (PPG: 0.545). Three places ahead are the Straubing Tigers with three wins and six defeats after regular time as well as one defeat after overtime or shootout with ten points from ten games (PPG: 1) in twelfth place in the table.

The game starts on Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 7.30 p.m. in the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne

The game starts on Sunday, October 17th, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. in the ice stadium at the Pulverturm

transmission

The games are broadcast live on MagentaSport. Normally, our fan radio “Straubing Tigers on Air” is also on site and broadcasts via the “Mixlr” app and via the Internet.

Ticketing

Tickets can be purchased from Straubing Tigers’ online ticketing at https://straubing-tigers.reservix.de/events as well as free of charge at all known advance booking offices. Until further notice, it is NOT possible to sell tickets at the stadium ticket offices due to the obligation to follow up.

Hints

All relevant information about visiting the stadium can be found here: https://www.straubing-tigers.de/corona-informationen/

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