The corona pandemic continues to provide unusual stories in professional sports. Two Nuremberg Ice Tigers players had to be isolated from the rest of the team during the home game against the Bietigheim Steelers on Wednesday evening because their positive PCR test results became known in the middle of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) game. Ryan Stoa and Daniel Schmölz were regularly on the ice in the first third when the club got the news that the two strikers had tested positive. Both were immediately isolated from the team in the third break. As their teammates contested the second third, they returned to the deserted dressing room, changed clothes and went into domestic isolation.
Due to the corona, the Franconians had already had to do without attackers Tim Fleischer and Max Kislinger. As a result, only 14 field players were available from the second third, of which only eight were forwards. They had to admit defeat to the Bietigheim Steelers 1:5, it was the first home defeat of the Franconians after six home wins in a row. “I noticed that the Ice Tigers didn’t have that much energy,” Steelers coach Daniel Naud said at the press conference after the game, in which four of the five Steelers goals came in the final third. “That helped us today.” Ice Tigers coach Tom Rowe, who had to be without attacker Gregor MacLeod shortly before the start of the game due to injury, which meant he was missing a total of eight players, emphasized: “We’ll get through it, even if it won’t be easy.”
The two positive cases were only found because the Ice Tigers still have so-called PCR pool tests carried out once a week, although this is not required by the DEL. The first results and the allocation of personnel became known on Wednesday evening when the game against the Steelers was already underway. According to the club, all quick tests that the entire Nuremberg team – including coaches and supervisors – had undergone on the day of the game against Bietigheim were negative. As a precaution, the Ice Tigers canceled Thursday training. That turned out to be a good decision, because on the same day the club was informed by the responsible laboratory that goalkeeper Niklas Treutle and attacker Lukas Ribarik, both of whom had played against Bietigheim, had also tested positive for the corona virus.
