Krefeld (dpa) – After 31 years of excellence, the Krefeld Pinguine are about to be relegated from the German Ice Hockey League. Despite the hard-fought 3:2 (2:1, 0:0, 0:1) after extra time against direct competitor Schwenninger Wild Wings on Tuesday, the two-time champion can already be confirmed as the first DEL relegated since 2006 on Wednesday evening. Managing Director Sergej Saveljew now assessed the chances of the penguins much more realistically than most of the 2534 fans celebrating frenetically after the win in the last seconds of extra time against Schwenningen.
“We needed three points to believe in the rescue even more,” said the Latvian-born 25-year-old Russian. Due to the missed victory in regular time, Krefeld only collected two instead of three possible points and Schwenningen got a point instead of going empty-handed.
As a result, Krefeld now have to win on Wednesday in the next catch-up game at title aspirants Mannheim in order to continue to maintain the vague theoretical chance of remaining in the class. “This is a very important game for us. We will keep fighting,” said Savelyev.
However, the Krefelders still need three wins from their last three main round games by Sunday. And the penguins will play twice more against Mannheim, which has had a new coach in Bill Stewart since Monday after separating from predecessor Pavel Gross and should be particularly motivated. At the same time, Schwenningen or the third from last Iserlohn would have to lose all games. The Sauerlanders are opponents of Krefeld on Friday.
“Everyone wrote us off a long time ago, but we’re still in the running. We’ll keep fighting. That’s simply our job,” said Savelyev, who is keeping the aisle before the DEL arbitration board open in the event of relegation. Although a number of games have been canceled this season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the teams will have played a different number of games at the end of the preliminary round and the point quotient will therefore determine the placement, for the first time in 16 years a relegated team will be determined. The Kassel Huskies were last relegated in 2006. However, the penguins do not consider the regulation to be fair given the corona circumstances.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220330-99-725239/3
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