Dhe last action of the day belonged to Andreas Jenike, befitting his status. One last shot, one last save, and then it was done. Jenike saved 31 shots and gave his Iserlohn Roosters their 13th victory in the 33rd game of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) season. What did not cause increased enthusiasm, however, the goalkeeper routinely accepted the congratulations of his colleagues after the 2-1 win in Augsburg. Captain Torsten Ankert also seemed rather thoughtful afterwards on the Magentasport microphone: “Not taking part in the game with the whole team for four weeks and just watching – that’s no fun. It’s been a turbulent time.”
Indeed it was. The people of Iserlohn were caught by Corona like no other team. 28 cases were known at the turn of the year, a four-week forced break, and the Roosters changed coaches in between. And it was already the second outbreak, the team had to be quarantined in October and then had to start decimated for weeks. The good start to the season with six wins from ten games was quickly forgotten, and suddenly the Iserlohn team found themselves in a relegation zone. With the victory in Augsburg they have now left it again after a long time. The first positive news in weeks.
Christian Hommel was correspondingly relieved: “We knew that it would be a feat of strength. If you’ve been at home on the couch for a long time, you eventually leave grains. The boys did a great job,” said Hommel, himself from Sauerland, a former youth player and professional with the Roosters, manager since 2019. These are tough months for him too, threatening to tear down everything he had built before. In 2021, the Roosters reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016. In addition to a top line with North Americans, they now rely more on young players, ideally from their own youth.
That was different for years. Predecessor Karsten Mende was known for flying across the Atlantic and looking for players with German ancestors. The most important employee of the Roosters works at the office and waved through the naturalizations, the industry said. Because it could happen that the people from Iserlohn went onto the ice with more than 20 North Americans, many of them with German passports, so as not to violate the DEL rules. Cologne international Moritz Müller once grumbled about “Canada 1c” after a defeat against the Roosters. What didn’t bother the people of Iserlohn, they made fun of it and brought out a “Kanada 1c” jersey that sold throughout Germany. Müller also got one.
This season they once again have a knack for fan articles in Sauerland. A few weeks ago they changed their name to “Iserlohn Boosters”, the rooster in the club crest wore a mask and held a syringe instead of an ice hockey stick. The hoodie with the new logo is the bestseller in the fan shop. It was bitter that the people of Iserlohn, of all people, experienced a second outbreak. In total, they have had almost 40 infections around the team since the start of the season, including “some hardship cases”, as manager Hommel says, but meanwhile “everyone is fine”.
This does not apply to the table situation. Nobody knows whether the Roosters can catch up on their unusual games. Other teams have up to nine more. Hommel is also skeptical that everything will still work out like this. And what sporting value such a season actually has: “Difficult, of course we were all aware beforehand that it would hit teams, but Omikron is something else, we were suddenly flattened overnight. From a sporting point of view, it’s no longer really fair when we see the speed at which games are postponed and the size of the squad that teams have to compete in.”
At least his squad is complete now, so it’s about catching up. Because of course the manager knows about the fight against relegation. And wouldn’t mind if it was suspended again – an emotional topic in German ice hockey. So Hommel “doesn’t really want to comment anymore, we work with what is presented to us,” but he also says: “If you compare that with sporting fairness, it’s difficult to sell that someone has to go down there.”
