Champions Hockey League: Difficult preliminary round group for EHC Munich – Sport

It wasn’t even seven minutes into the game before the Munich fan block loudly saluted the new hopefuls for the first time. “Niederberger, Niederberger, hey,” came the sound from the curve in the Eissportzentrum Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where EHC Red Bull Munich was a guest last Sunday to play their last preparatory game. He lost 0:2 against HC Litvinov from the Czech Republic, and he missed numerous, in some cases very good, offensive chances. Mathias Niederberger, the German national goalkeeper, who switched from champions Eisbären Berlin to the Isar in the summer, presented himself in very good shape when he first played in the EHC jersey. With several strong saves, including two thwarted solo attempts, he prevented more goals.

In Garmisch-Partenkirchen it was unusually close to the people for the EHC players. A few seconds before the start of the final third, Konrad Abeltshauser even fulfilled a selfie request from a supporter when he sat down on the penalty box, which in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is really a wooden bench – and only one meter, without Plexiglas delimitation, positioned next to the stands and thus relatively freely accessible.

“You can’t afford anything in this group,” Munich manager Christian Winkler suspects

But now things are getting serious again for Munich. On Thursday they will start the group stage of the Champions Hockey League (CHL) with an away game against the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers from Switzerland (8 p.m.). Only two days later they are guests of the Slovakian record champions Slovan Bratislava. The third group opponent is Tappara Tampere, the Finns defeated the EHC in the semi-finals in February. “You can’t afford anything in this group,” Munich manager Christian Winkler suspects.

Despite the well-known group opponents, the EHC is going into the competition with confidence – they know what it takes to get far on the international stage. Because he has players who are particularly good at the CHL. Just like attacker Trevor Parkes, who has scored 18 goals for Munich in the past three CHL seasons. This is one of the reasons why the EHC was in the semi-finals seven months ago, and in 2019 it even made it to the final. “The closer you get to your goal, the more hungry you get – especially if you haven’t reached it,” stressed Captain Patrick Hager. Financial hunger can also be satisfied in the CHL: 500,000 euros in prize money await the winner. A measly sum compared to the Champions League in football, but a reward not to be scoffed at by ice hockey standards.

In order to be able to get a taste of it, the EHC now has to switch to competitive game mode, because he lost all of his three preparatory games (1:7, 4:5, 0:2). Andreas Eder thinks there’s no reason to panic, the results in preparation are “basically completely irrelevant”, it’s about the way you play. And the 26-year-old liked it, especially against Litvinov. Eder is another newcomer, or rather: a returnee. After three years in Nuremberg and Straubing, where he matured into a seasoned DEL professional, the striker returned to Munich in the summer.

Straubing “deserved through our development over the past few years” to take part in the CHL, says captain Schönberger

Eder has really earned his CHL appearances this year, because last season he helped the Straubing Tigers to qualify for the team from Lower Bavaria. They had already managed to do that in the 2019/20 season, but the following CHL season fell victim to the corona pandemic. But now the Lower Bavarians can tour Europe for the first time in their club history. In Group F they meet Färjestad BK (Sweden), Villacher SV (Austria) and the Polish club Comarch Cracovia from Kraków, where they celebrate their debut on Friday.

Captain Sandro Schönberger feels “pure pride” to be able to represent the Tigers colors internationally. The 35-year-old has been in Straubing for 13 years, he witnessed the early years of the DEL in Lower Bavaria, when they regularly ended the seasons in the last places. They are now part of the DEL top group, and they have not finished any of the past three main rounds worse than fourth place. The team and the club “deserve the CHL participation through our development in recent years”, says Schönberger. The goal is to “leave our footprint internationally as well”, so that you can play freely.

The preparation was promising, unlike Munich, the Tigers won all of their four games. They even kept a clean sheet against ERC Ingolstadt and HC Lugano from Switzerland (4:0 each), a good omen. Tigers coach Tom Pokel, the architect of the continuous upswing in Straubing, approaches the CHL premiere like this: “We have nothing to lose, but we want to win.”