The ice hockey miracle is true: two years after being promoted to the second division with a 4-1 win against Memmingen, the Eisbären Regensburg are now also champions of the DEL2. With a 4:2 (1:1, 2:1, 1:0) against the Kassel Huskies In the sixth final, coach Max Kaltenhauser’s team secured their fourth victory in the Donau-Arena, which was sold out with 4,712 spectators, and crowned a historic season.
The new impulse from interim coaches Sven Valenti and Daniel Kreutzer, who took over for Bill Stewart and Hugo Boisvert on Monday, had little effect on the ranks. In defense for the Eisbären, Korbinian Schütz, who was replaced by Andre Bühler in the team, and, as so often, Lucas Flade, alongside striker Lukas Heger, had to bite the bullet of not being on the ice.
Whose head is busy? Does the “threatening” fourth victory put pressure on the Eisbären? Or will another change of coach in Kassel release new strengths? Questions after questions arose before the game, where the Josef Menzl band, like on Friday before the game, once again cheered up the Eisbären fans.
Lightning start after 129 seconds
“Get the trophy!” was written on the fans’ banner in the Eisbärenkurve. And the Eisbären did as they were told with a picture-perfect start: Not in the first, not even in the second, but in the third attempt, Tomas Schwamberger brought the puck past Kassel keeper Brandon Maxwell behind the line after 129 seconds to make it 1-0. An unusual moment of shock followed 47 seconds later: linesman David Tschirner remained injured on the ice after a face-off, but was able to continue.
Kassel needed to get into the game and then got control. After an unfortunate rebound from Xaver Tippmann, Eisbären goalkeeper Tom McCollum saved against Daniel Weiß, but Hans Detsch equalized after 7:08 minutes. But the polar bears fought back and the intense game went back and forth – with no big advantage here or there.
The Regensburg team got off to the same quick start in the second third as they had in the first – even better. Marvin Schmid scored after 136 seconds because the Eisbären were once again able to rely on their power play, which was so outstanding in the playoffs, this time after 66 of the 120 seconds of power play. And just 36 seconds later, Constantin Ontl, who always worked so tirelessly but was often unlucky in front of the goal, was rewarded and cleverly scored from close range after a Schwamberger shot – making it 3-1.
Was the course already set ahead of time for the next championship celebration? No, because Tom McCollum also had to play in between, twice against Ryan Olsen, for example (26th/27th). And power play is not always a guarantee of a goal: the Regensburg team took the next opportunity to have the advantage a little too euphorically – and promptly conceded through Louis Brune the connecting gate (27:22).
Of course, the Eisbären had further opportunities: Ontl was free and failed (27:40), Maxwell parried against Schwamberger for 23 seconds and with a run by David Booth similar to his goal on Friday, only the last correct contact with the disc was missing (34th). Above all, the Eisbären now defended with extreme concentration after Kassel’s shorthanded goal.
Trivino into the empty goal
The Kaltenhauser team continued on this line and at the same time waited for offensive actions. Kassel’s pressure increased, but Booth stole the puck, but was denied by Maxwell (48:24). But the lead held and held and held. Olsen had the equalizer on his bat, but so did Booth with Gajovsky on a counterattack. Kassel took a timeout (57:29), a little later the goalkeeper came off the ice and Corey Trivino scored into the empty net. And then at 10:18 p.m. all the dams broke: the polar bears had the cup.