The two coaches didn’t quite agree when they stood at the “Magentasport” microphone after the start of the semi-final series between Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven and EHC Red Bull Munich. While Munich’s Toni Söderholm saw a game in which Bremerhaven were “in control”, Thomas Popiesch saw it differently. Although his team “did a lot right at the beginning”, especially when they had the majority, “then both teams had their actions. We just scored the goals at the right moments.”
That was a very idiosyncratic view of this first semi-final, which Bremerhaven won 3-0. But understatement is part of the business model of the team from the North Sea coast. It can even dominate the defending champions and be only three wins away from the final of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), but no one in Bremerhaven is inclined to public enthusiasm. Not even the fact that the Pinguins finished the main round as first in the table and won the quarter-finals against Ingolstadt 4-0 has changed anything.
“Small versus big”
However, the view in Bremerhaven is not entirely unfounded. The Penguins have been regulars in the play-offs since their promotion in 2016, but they have never won there. So they still pass them off as a surprise team. Financially they are far from being at the top.
And they’re not the only “little one” to make it to the final four this season. In the other semi-final, the Straubing Tigers challenge the record champions Eisbären Berlin. Although they unfortunately lost the opener on Sunday 1:3, they were by no means the worse team.
When the second of a maximum of seven games comes up this Wednesday evening (7.30 p.m. at Magentasport), the Lower Bavarians certainly don’t have a chance. Nevertheless: This DEL semi-final in 2024 has the motto “Small against big”. Here Munich and Berlin: two big city clubs with rich investors and squads full of national players who have won various titles in recent years. There Bremerhaven and Straubing: two clubs from small towns that rely on the local economy and have never reached a DEL final.
According to league boss Gernot Tripcke, that is what defines the DEL. That it’s not just the ones with the biggest names and the most money who are celebrating. Tripcke makes no secret of the fact that “the big ones” are important for external representation; more fans and more charisma never interfere with marketing. But “mixture is always good,” says Tripcke, and the current successes of Bremerhaven and Straubing are also “an incentive for everyone else that it is possible that the supposedly smaller ones can also do it.”
Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5 Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated: Recommendations: 8
At first glance, the two who are currently making it don’t have much in common. Some come from the northwest, where ice hockey is hardly played. The others are from the southeast, where winter sports are at home. But there are certainly parallels. Both have relied on the same personnel on and off the ice for years, and both are number one in their city. “If we had any significant football, we wouldn’t be in this form,” says Tigers managing director Gaby Sennebogen.
“Straubing has always been an ice hockey city, just like Bremerhaven: tradition and no direct competition.” The club recently expanded the VIP area in the stadium from 350 to 470 seats. In Bremerhaven, too, they are “firmly rooted in the city and regional economy,” says team manager Alfred Prey and reports around 250 sponsors.
So both have been developing steadily for years and no longer have to let their best players go every summer. You can see that on the ice, this season both ended up in the final table ahead of the big city teams from Munich, Mannheim, Cologne, Nuremberg, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt. And now it’s even working in the play-offs. Although they are still outsiders on paper and talk like that, internally their goals have long since changed. The semi-finals should only be a stopover.
