by Manfred Schneider, Sunday February 12, 2023, reading time: approx. 6 minutes
That was quite a surprise in the Oberliga Nord: It was to be expected that the Hannover Scorpions would not have an easy time with the Saale Bulls Halle, but nobody had expected that they would go down, at least in terms of the result.
Perhaps the shot came right in front of Bug Scorpions coach Kevin Gaudet in playoff preparation. Since Tilburg also won, the duel for second place remains exciting and from the point of view of Halle and Tilburg the Hanover Indians, who also won, shouldn’t be written off completely. Since Hamburg also kept their three points against Krefeld, a lot is still possible upstairs.
In the duel for sixth place, Herne lost a point against Leipzig, but is still three games behind. Therefore, the HEV has a brutal mission this week. After this weekend on February 14 against Hamburg (8 p.m.), on February 15 in Herford (8 p.m.), on February 17 in Krefeld (7.30 p.m.) and on February 19 against Duisburg (6.30 p.m.).
Since Hamm was defeated in Tilburg, the Duisburg foxes were able to overtake the Westphalians and took eighth place. Things stayed the same at the bottom of the table as all teams lost their games.
Saale Bulls Halle – Hannover Scorpions 6: 1 (1: 0, 1: 1, 4: 0)
The Saale Bulls Halle deservedly won the absolute top game, albeit a bit too high in the end, and they set a new record against the Scorpions. The previous record victory was a 5-1 in January 2018, which Pfennings replaced with his goal two minutes before the end. The Bulls’ outstanding power play was one of the decisive factors in the clear success. They used three of their eight chances, in contrast to the Scorpions’ zero number. In addition, Halle’s goalkeeper Timo Herden showed a perfect game and was able to credit himself with a catch rate of 96.3 percent. Jakub Urbisch, who stood in for Brett Jaeger, ended up with only 86.7 percent. Another Bulls top performer was Thore Weyrauch, who improved his scorer list from 81st to 63rd with his two goals.
Tore: 1:0 (18:26) Matias Varttinen (Kaplan), 1:1 (20:27) Christoph Kabitzky (Rinke, Reimer), 2:1 (39:04) Thore Weyrauch (Gauch, Pfennings), 3: 1 (49:06) Thore Weyrauch (Gauch, Stas 5-4), 4:1 (53:41) Thomas Merl (Havainen, Schmid 5-4), 5:1 (57:17) Jordan Kaplan (Havainen), 6:1 (58:09) Roman Pfennings (Merl, Vihavainen 5-4)
Tilburg Trappers – Hammer Eisbären 5: 1 (3: 0, 0: 0, 2: 1)
A happy success for the Dutch, who also had the edge in their sixth home game against the polar bears. However, this time it was much tighter, because the Hammers were equal, only when scoring goals they were clearly less efficient than the Trappers. The best trapper was Janne de Bonth with two goals. Hamm never gave up, failed again and again due to the attentive home defense and goalkeeper Ruud Leeuwesteijn, who this time was preferred to Andree.
Tore: 1:0 (07:09) Janne de Bonth (Jacobs), 2:0 (08:53) Danny Stempher (Richards, de Hondt), 3:0 (10:00) Diego Hofland (Virtanen, Hessels), 4:0 (45:38) Janne de Bonth (Verkiel), 5:0 (49:26) Max Hermens (van der Schuit), 5:1 (52:13) Kevin Lavallee (Schutz, Tegkaev)
Hannover Indians – Herforder EV Ice Dragons 5:2 (0:0, 2:1, 3:1)
As in November, the Indians were victorious in the second game of the season against the Ice Dragons with 5:2. The Westphalians, who had traveled to the Pferdeturm without top scorer Rustams Begovs, made it very difficult for the hosts. Especially in the first third, the sluggish hosts didn’t really find their way into their game, although Herford, who were quite poisonous but never unfair, were able to put on this shoe. Only a lucky shot by Riku Tiainen, who slipped through the schooners of Justin Schrörs, who had been strong until then, in the HEV gate, brought the change. When Tobias Möller made it 2-0, a preliminary decision seemed to have been made, but the not always solid Indians defense let Berezovsky out of sight just a minute later and he overcame the well-held Sebastian Graf in the ECH goal to connect. The Indians game only really calmed down at the beginning of the third period when Branislav Pohanka scored the 3:1 with a solo action, which was followed by Sebastian Christmann to make it 4:1. Everything seemed clear again, but when Dominika Patocka reduced the deficit to 2:4 not a minute later, it was time for the Indians to swim freely again. And it got really tough almost four minutes before the end when Herford’s coach Milan Vanek even took his goalkeeper out of the box. Now some hot scenes took place in front of Graf’s goal, but luckily he kept calm and only Pohanka’s second goal of the day finally ended the question of the winner.
Goals: 1:0 (24:37) Riku Tiainen (Bacek, Selan), 2:0 (32:05) Tobias Möller (Bräuner), 2:1 (33:50) Ulib Berezovskyy (Garden, Müller 5-4) , 3: 1 (43:41) Branislav Pohanka (Turnwald, Selan 5-4), 4: 1 (53:02) Sebastian Christmann (Bräuner, Schubert), 4: 2 (53:51) Dominik Patocka (Hutt, Denoble ), 5: 2 (58:44) Branislav Pohanka (Pohl, Tiainen ENG)
Black Dragons Erfurt – Icefighters Leipzig 3:4 (1:0, 1:2, 1:1, 0:1) n.V.
In a dramatic game, Leipzig prevailed in Erfurt, holding sixth place ahead of Herne for the first time, so that today’s matchday is free of play. It was perhaps also decisive that Leipzig started with a full four rows, while Erfurt, who were in good condition, could only show three. In the extremely fair game with a total of only six penalty minutes, Canadian Alexandre Ranger shone with two assists at Erfurt, while Joonas Riekkinen and Michael Burns were particularly impressive at Leipzig, with the latter making the decision in extra time.
Tore: 1:0 (00:59) Tim May (Herrschaft, Ranger), 1:1 (22:41) Ian Farrell (Kanya, Piskor), 2:1 (31:25) Reto Schüpping (Bezouska, Bosas), 2:2 (34:41) Jonas Wolter (Riekkinen, Burns), 2:3 (52:49) Victor Östling (Sauer, Miethke), 3:3 (59:12) D’Artagnan Joly (Ranger 6-5) , 3:4 (63:29) Michael Burns (Hannon, Riekkinen)
Crocodiles Hamburg – Krefeld EV U23 6: 2 (2: 1, 2: 0, 2: 1)
A clear success for the favourites, who had to fight hard for over half an hour before the youngsters from Krefeld ran out of breath. Only a double strike in the middle third in the majority gave Hamburg, who had their best man in Adam Domogalla, a clear lead. After Bruns and Schaludek increased to 6:1, the Krefeld team were at least able to finish the game with their second goal. One of the assisters of the second KEV goal was Dorian Kielbasa. The 19-year-old scored his first point in the adult category.
Goals: 1: 0 (03:54) Adam Domogalla (Spöttel, Henkel), 2: 0 (06:31) Luis Müller (Tramm, Rennert), 2: 1 (16:46) Manuel Nix (Dobryskin, Schymainski), 3: 1 (35:51) Ilya Fleischmann (Domogalla, Tramm 5-4), 4: 1 (36:34) Thomas Zuravlev (Kupiainen, Lascheit 5-4), 5: 1 (47:08) Tobias Bruns (Lascheit , Rennert), 6: 1 (52:56) Maximilian Schaludek (Domogalla, Kuschel), 6: 2 (57:09) Martin Schymainski (Kielbasa, McLeod)
Herner EV Miners – EG Diez-Limburg 6: 5 (3: 0, 0: 1, 2: 4, 1: 0) nP
Finally a win after three home defeats in a row. How wounded the nerves of the Ruhrpottler were was shown by the allowed chase by Limburg, who rightly went into overtime and just missed the second point by a hair’s breadth. The never giving up Limburg, who once again had their best players in the trio of Zolmanis, Bajaruns and Fedor Kolupaylo, the latter improved from 30th to 18th in the top scorer list with his three goals, repeatedly put the Herner defense in a mood of alarm and David equalized Lademann in the last minute was more than deserved. In the end, Goddess Fortuna’s cornucopia tipped over the Miners and Biezais scored the all-important extra point in the fight for sixth place.
Goal: 1:0 (09:59) Marlon Polter (Shmyr, Becker), 2:0 (11:14) Chris Seto (Shmyr, Swinnen), 3:0 (12:51) Alexander Komov (Stelzmann, Kirchhoff), 3:1 (23:31) Fedor Kolupaylo (Bajaruns, Zolmanis 5-4), 3:2 (40:36) Lauris Bajaruns (Zolmanis, Fleischer 4-5), 4:2 (46:05) Denis Fominych (Liesegang , Biezais), 4:3 (47:59) Fedor Kolupaylo (Seifert, Zolmanis), 5:3 (52:05) Nils Liesegang (Biezais, Fominych), 5:4 (55:23) Fedor Kolupaylo (Zolmanis, Lademann ), 5:5 (59:15) David Lademann (Bajaruns 5-4), 6:5 (65:00) Elvijs Biezais (PEN)
Rostock Piranhas – Foxes Duisburg 2: 4 (1: 0, 1: 2, 0: 2)
The 900 spectators in the Rostock ice rink could not blame their team for one thing. That she doesn’t fight. After a lot of work, the Duisburgers scored the opening goal in the 49th minute through Manuel Neumann, which Pontus Wernerson Libäck extended in the 55th minute. When Füchse actor Marvin Cohut picked up a penalty 99 seconds before the end of the game, things got really hectic, but the piranhas, who also lacked a bit of strength and concentration at the end, were no longer able to make the hoped-for change.
Goals: 1: 0 (06:23) Tom Voronow (Hahn, Renke 5-4), 1: 1 (23:32) Lennart Schmitz (Nedved, Lundh Hahnebeck 5-4), 2: 1 (26:16) Stephane Döring (Voronow, Pauker 5-4), 2: 2 (29:23) Oula Uski (Fischer, Neumann), 2: 3 (48:22) Manuel Neumann (P. Wernerson Libäck, Krämer), 2: 4 (55 :08) Pontus Wernerson Liback (L. Wernerson Liback, fisherman)
