The Preliminary Oracle is a remarkable creature. Its habitat is the same as that relegation specter should handle. While the relegation specter, which nobody has ever seen, at least unfolds a very real horror, the preliminary round oracle is sheer nonsense. Nevertheless, it is called reliably. “In only 19 of 41 cases was the preliminary round oracle correct, after which the team placed first after the main round also prevailed in the play-offs played since the 1980/81 season,” he informed Sports Information Service before the start of the playoffs in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). 19 of 41: What self-respecting oracle would dare to go public with such a hit rate?
Tables have nothing to do with prophecies, noxious fumes from crevices, or other mind-expanding substances. A table is a table, so to be read retrospectively, an expression of what has been. And so Patrick Hager, captain of the preliminary round first EHC Red Bull Munich, correctly predicted: “The playoffs start from zero.” Results from the main round were irrelevant, “neither individual duels nor the score,” said Hager, otherwise the Munich team would have secured their fourth title. Nevertheless: “Actually, we can almost only beat ourselves,” said defender Konrad Abeltshauser. “The depth of the squad is definitely an advantage. And we have a top-performing goalkeeper.”
Abeltshauser was absolutely right: Not least thanks to national goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger, Munich finished the main round with a club record of 122 points and a 19-point lead over Ingolstadt – then they lost the first two quarter-final games against Bremerhaven.
504:46 minutes – the 2019 semi-final is still the longest playoff series in DEL history
Not only the people of Munich are happy that this year again in the format best of seven is played: Four wins are needed to advance, not just three as in the playoffs of the past season, which were shortened due to the pandemic. “We had to push ourselves to the limit to win against Bremerhaven,” said Munich coach Don Jackson, whose team won the next four games after the 2-0 wake-up call, the decisive one 2-1. Jackson, 66, the league’s record coach with eight titles, then shook the hand of his Bremerhaven colleague Thomas Popiesch, who hadn’t made it into the semifinals again, like a grandfather who is patiently trying to teach his grandson to ride a bike: It’ll be okay, boy , just keep trying.
This Friday at the start of the semi-finals, Jackson’s team is now expecting the Grizzlies Wolfsburg, fifth after the preliminary round. If the tables and numbers were valid, the Munich team would be fine. The two teams will meet in the playoffs for the fifth time. And only once, in 2015, did Wolfsburg prevail, in the quarter-finals. Munich then won ten knockout series in a row and won the title three times, in 2016 (4-0 wins) and 2017 (4-1) in the final against Wolfsburg. In the semi-finals last season, victory went smoothly to Bayern, who also won all four league games against Lower Saxony this season.
Mike Stewart, head coach of the Wolfsburg Grizzlys, knows how to defeat the industry leader from Munich.
(Photo: Johann Medvey/Eibner/Imago)
Mike Stewart, 50, sophomore coach of the Grizzlies, knows the numbers. And knows that they mean nothing for the topicality. After his team beat the Straubing Tigers in game seven on Wednesday, the Canadian with an Austrian passport said: “We’re looking forward to the next challenge.”
Stewart has experience in playoff series against Munich. In 2019, when he was still coaching the Augsburg Panthers, he forced the big favorites Munich into a memorable series of seven games in the semifinals. The two neighbors fought each other for a total of 504:46 minutes until it was clear who would follow Mannheim into the final. Defending champions Munich finally prevailed 2-0 in the seventh game, the total playing time would have been enough for more than eight regular games, twice it went into the third overtime. It was the longest playoff series in DEL history, epic, cinema format, cinemascope and surround sound.
Solid at a high level: The way to the final leads through the two goalkeepers
And this semi-final between Munich and Wolfsburg also promises to be closer than its predecessor. Both teams are similar in key positions. Munich’s record goalscorer Trevor Parkes (105 goals), who made his debut for Augsburg in the DEL seven years ago under Stewart, describes himself as a garbage man who collects everything lying around in front of the opposing goal, i.e. where the duels are particularly hard. Wolfsburg’s garbage man is Darren Archibald: On Wednesday against Straubing, Archibald scored to make it 2-1 by turning a rebound into the goal from close range: not spectacular, but effective.
And just like in Augsburg with Drew LeBlanc, Mike Stewart also has an endurance runner in the Grizzly squad: defender Jordan Murray played an average of 30:20 minutes against Straubing, more than half of every game. Above all, however, the duel between the national goalkeepers Niederberger and Dustin Strahlmeier should point the way to the final; the second finalist will be determined between Ingolstadt and Mannheim. After the 3-1 win in Straubing, which Strahlmeier secured with numerous saves, Stewart said at Magentasport: “Jeti was solid today.” When asked, he corrected with a laugh, no, that was already “high level”. Only Niederberger is statistically better.
But what are numbers? If he pulls up the quarterfinals, said the new national coach Harold Kreis on Thursday, “that was a real one dog fightincredibly hard-fought.” And he could predict one thing: “It won’t calm down.”