Female polar bears return home with 5 points
The Eisbären Juniors women’s team returned to Berlin on Sunday evening with five points in their luggage. At the double away game weekend in Bergkamen, the Eisbärinnen won 4:3 on Saturday and 2:1 on Sunday after a penalty shootout.
For head coach Daniel Bartell’s team, which was still weakened by injuries and corona infections, the two wins were urgently needed to at least keep the mathematical chances of a playoff qualification alive. However, the gap to fourth place, which would mean reaching the semi-finals, has grown to ten points due to two straight victories by ERC Ingolstadt at table leaders ESC Planegg. When looking at the remaining program of both clubs, the chances of the Berliners are therefore only of a theoretical nature.
But there was also positive news from this weekend, when the team was exactly 20 years young on average. Pauline Gruchot, who moved to the capital from weekend opponents EC Bergkamen before the season, scored two goals against her former team-mates on Saturday. Thea Bartell was also successful twice. In the first comparison, she deflected an untenable shot for Bergkamen’s goalkeeper to win the game 4:3, on Sunday she was the only player to score in the penalty shootout and secured victory for the polar bears for the second time.
Emmi-Lee Hanack made sure that the second match even came to that. Six minutes before the end of the game, the youngest player on the ice made it 1-1 in the margin. It was the 15-year-old’s first goal in the 15th DFEL appearance. The player, who has a FASS Berlin promotional license, said afterwards about her goal debut: “I was a bit overwhelmed at first. But the next moment I was really happy about it, especially because I could help the team with it. That’s how we used to be chance of winning…”
Two games at ECDC Memmingen are scheduled for the polar bears next weekend. The Allgäu women are currently in 3rd place in the DFEL table.
(Lyrics by Daniel Goldstein)
