The game marathon of the second division ice hockey club Eisbären Regensburg between the years continues: Already on Wednesday, December 28, the Domstädter are challenged in Freiburg, almost 500 kilometers away. The match in Breisgau between the seventh-placed Oberpfälzer (43 points) and the ninth-placed EHC Freiburg wolves (40 points) starts at 19:30. Points against their direct rivals would be important for Regensburg, who recently scored an exclamation point with a furious 4-0 home win over Ravensburg after three previous defeats.
Coach Max Kaltenhauser will probably have to do without striker Constantin Ontl again. The rest of the team is probably available.
Freiburg have lost seven of their last ten games, but recently (after five failures in a row) managed a 4-0 win at Weißwasser’s Lausitzer Füchsen. In the last three games, the only 17-year-old Keanu Šalmik was in goal for Wolves, a promotional license loaned by first division club Schwenningen. The youngster, the son of Freiburg’s sporting director Peter Šalmik, impresses with an impressive conceding rate of just 1.7 and holds almost 95% of shots on target. If he too manages to come close to maintaining this average, he will immediately catapult himself into the ranking of the best DEL-2 goalkeepers ever.
Beware of Captain Gajovský
In the first showdown between the sides this season, the Polar Bears won 6-1 at home in front of a home crowd with goals from Nikola Gajovský, Richard Diviš (2 each), Constantin Ontl and Topi Piipponen. At that time, the best striker Tor Immo met for the Breisgauer. The Swede played together with EWC contingent striker Radim Matuš at Orli Znojmo in the international ICEHL last season and is now the most dangerous striker in Wölfe coach Robert Hoffmann’s team with 15 goals and assists. Canadian defender Michael James Prapavessis, who was signed by the Baden-Württemberg side in early December, was not involved in the first meeting. He has already scored four points in seven games so far, including his first goal in the DEL-2 recently at Weißwasser (goal into an empty net shortly before the end to make it 4-0).
Particular attention will be paid to the Polar Bears captain Nikola Gajovský in the game. With his next scoring point, the forward could take the sole lead in the all-time scoring list in Regensburg’s 60-year ice hockey history. In the 4-0 victory over Ravensburg, he tied with previous leader “Magic” Mike Martens (593 points) with a brace.
The Upper Palatinate will then play their next home game on Friday, December 30: From 20:00, Heilbronner Falken will be guests in the Danube Arena.
Tickets are available at: www.ebr.live
Text: Goal of Jan Mirco
Image: Melanie Feldmeier/arSito
