Tilburg Trappers are the winner of the match day

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​Who would have bet that the Saale Bulls Halle and the Hannover Scorpions would lose and that the Tilburg Trappers win in Hamm would be worth practically six points? Now the Dutch are at least within striking distance of the Scorpions in the Oberliga Nord.

Halle is still seven points ahead of the Hanoverians and even one game less in the overall balance. The Hanover Indians are currently in fourth place. After the success against Krefeld, they have a six-point lead over Leipzig, who are again without a game. However, they have four games less than the Indians and can, at least in theory, easily overtake them. In the quotient calculation, the Icefighters are in fourth place, but only 0.064 points ahead of the Indians. The situation is similar between Hamburg and Herne. Although the HEV has a five-point lead, it is 0.018 points behind Hamburg in terms of the quotient. So there can still be a lot of position changes. The battle for eighth place is also highly dramatic. Here the quotient corresponds to the points awarded and Erfurt leads this quartet ahead of Herford, Rostock and Essen. There are only six points between Erfurt and Essen and the victory against the Scorpions proved that the people of the Ruhr area are in good form. The last three, Diez-Limburg, Krefeld and Hamm, are now being phased out and their only goal will be to get through the season decently without major economic damage.

Saale Bulls Halle – Herner EV Miners 1: 2 (0: 0, 1: 1, 0: 1)

The Herner are always good for surprises. When nobody expected it, they struck in Halle, showed an outstanding defensive performance and had the support they needed for such a result in Björn Linda. In the balanced game, all goals came in excess, an indication of how important it is to send the right people onto the ice at such times of the game. The best players in the fair game with only 20 minutes of play alongside the two goalkeepers Björn Linda (Herne; 95.8 percent catch rate) and Jan Urbisch (90.5 percent catch rate) were the first block on Halle’s side and next to the first block on Herne’s side nor the third-row strikers Tegkaev and Komov.

Tore: 0: 1 (34:29) Alexander Komov (Tegkaev, Linda 5-4), 1: 1 (36:02) Joonas Niemelä (Schmid, Vihavainen 5-4), 1: 2 (42:13) Tomi Wilenius (Liesegang, Ackers 5-4)

Mosquitoes Essen – Hanover Scorpions 5: 2 (1: 0, 2: 2, 2: 0)

And one more surprise. The Mosquitoes, clearly outsiders on paper, defeated the favorite Hannover Scorpions, who had not yet started with new acquisition Brad Ross, clearly and clearly 5:2. The Scorpions were the better team, in the end they were ahead with 36:26 shots on goal, but were just as clearly inferior in terms of efficiency. The hard-fighting players from the Ruhr area took the lead early on, held the lead until the 39th minute of the game and were lucky enough to take the lead again in the last minute of the second period. A double strike in the 46th and 47th minute finally decided this exciting encounter. The best Essen players were Mark Zajic with three goals and Mike Glemser, the ex-Scorpion, who scored two points against his former club.

Tore: 1: 0 (05:50) Mitch Bruijsten (Saccomani, Hane), 1: 1 (26:55) Mike Hammond (Gron, Raabe), 2: 1 (32:39) Mark Zajic (MacLeod, Bruijsten), 2: 2 (38:17) Steven Raabe (Hammond, Thomson), 3: 2 (39:22) Mark Zajic (Glemser, Hane), 4: 2 (45:58) Mark Zajic (Bruijsten, Frick 5-4) , 5: 2 (46:39) Mike Glemser (Spelleken, Luft)

Hannover Indians – Krefeld EV U23 5: 2 (3: 2, 1: 0, 1: 0)

Elmar Schmitz, coach of the Krefeld juniors, couldn’t spoil the good mood that evening. His team didn’t have a real chance of winning at 2:5 at the horse tower over the full season, but they had done well and shone with their running performance and fairness. However, the most important message for Schmitz was not a Oberliga message. In the new 2022 NHL draft, three boys from the Krefeld youth will probably be drafted, which clearly shows what first-class youth work is being done in Krefeld.

The encounter in Hanover started with a bit of a shock for the favored Hanoverians. The Krefelders, who went into the game without hesitation, scored two goals in the first ten minutes of the game and surprised the Indians with their brisk style of play, who only got into the game with a lot of effort. The game wasn’t decided even after the 3:2, but the decisive momentum happened in the 25th minute of the game. The Indians were outnumbered when a Krefeld striker escaped after a bad pass and he only hit the crossbar. In return, Parker Bowles scored the 4:2. After that, the Indians’ magic show began, which included only one mistake. They didn’t hit the mark and they found their match in Krefeld’s keeper Matthias Bittner. Elmar Schmitz: “Our goalkeeper gave an excellent performance today and kept us in the game for a long time.” It was Bittner who, together with Marcel Mahkovec, was by far the best guest player and to whom Krefeld owed it that it didn’t happen again became double digits. In the third third then the same game, with only Jayden Schubert Bittner able to defeat. With the Indians, who only had to do without Bovensche due to injury, you could tell that they were enjoying the game and that after five away games in a row they were finally allowed to play at the Pferdeturm again, even if it was “sold out” with only 500 spectators.

Tore: 0: 1 (05:41) Marcel Mahkovec (Ehrich, Esch), 1: 1 (07:28) Joe Kiss (Mieszkowski, Gibbons), 1: 2 (09:26) Marcel Mahkovec (Pfeifer, Ehrich 5- 4), 2: 2 (09:55) Parker Bowles (Möller, Strakhov), 3: 2 (15:25) Robin Palka (Schubert, Christmann), 4: 2 (24:20) Parker Bowles (Bacek, Pohanka 5 -4), 5: 2 (46:57) Jayden Schubert (Bowles, Turnwald 5-4)

Hammer Eisbären – Tilburg Trappers 3: 8 (0: 3, 3: 1, 0: 4)

A deserved success for the Trappers, who, however, had to stretch a little more than they expected. After the first period it was 3-0 for the Dutch, who thought they were the winners too early, exaggerated the physical game in the middle period and pulled themselves together again after the second goal conceded with a man down. In the last third it became apparent that the polar bears’ race to catch up had cost them too much energy. The Trappers picked up the pace again and scored four more goals, although the end result was a bit too high due to the strong hammer performance.

Tore: 0:1 (14:46) Diego Hofland (Bulmer, de Hondt), 0:2 (15:18) Kevin Bruijsten (Hessels, Bison), 0:3 (19:47) Max Hermens (5-4) , 1:3 (21:07) Fabio Calovi (Maaßen, Trivellato 5-4), 2:3 (21:53) David Trivellato (Maaßen, Stephens), 2:4 (22:48) Brett Bulmer (Hermens), 3:4 (33:52) Christopher Schutz (Brothers, Ortwein 5-4), 3:5 (41:22) Raymond van der Schuit (Hofland, Stempher), 3:6 (46:33) Reno de Hondt (Vogelaar) , Bulmer), 3:7 (49:54) Brett Bulmer (de Hondt, Hermens), 3:8 (52:45) Tijn Jacobs (van Gorp, Hessels)

EG Diez-Limburg – Rostock Piranhas 1:4 (0:1, 1:2, 0:1)

With this victory, the Rostockers underlined their claim to eighth place in the table. The Limburgers, who have recently been badly hit in many ways, showed a flawless fighting performance, but could not assert themselves playfully against the saddle-steady Piranhas. Annoying for Limburg coach Jan Pantkowski that his third-row striker Paul König has been handed a playing time and will be suspended for one game. Limburg’s best player was keeper Jan Guryca, who defused 52 shots and had a catch rate of almost 93 percent. At Rostock, keeper Lucas di Berardo shone with a 97.4 percent catch rate, as did strikers Gianluca Balla and Constantin Koopmann.

Goals: 0:1 (07:39) Justin Maylan (von Ungern-Sternberg, Koopmann), 0:2 (21:31) Maximilian Herz (Koopmann), 1:2 (28:07) Nico Lehtonen (King 5-4 ), 1: 3 (36:01) Jonas Gerstung (Balla), 1: 4 (52:18) Lukas Koziol (Steinmann)

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