1-lead is not enough – Ehrenberger criticism of referees

By Roland Rappel

What tension, what drama, what a bitter end! After 1: 3, 4: 1, 2: 3, 3: 1 in the four previous games, Deggendorfer SC scored a 3 in the ultimate game 5 of the quarter-final playoffs in the ice hockey league on Maundy Thursday evening against the Saale Bulls Halle: 1-lead – thanks to “lightning double packer” Lukas Miculka, who strikes twice within 82 seconds! But the drama culminates in three – at least dubious – penalties for the DSC and a 5:3 victory for Halle!

A balanced series between Deggendorfer SC and the Saale Bulls from Halle also results in a game 5 that is balanced over long stretches. Then a final phase with dubious referee decisions that put the hosts on the road to victory is decisive. Well packaged, but the criticism from DSC coach Jiri Ehrenberger after the game was unmistakable: “It would have been good for the game if it had been whistled in the same line for 60 minutes.”

The game starts with a balanced initial phase with chances for both sides – no scanning, but an intense game with numerous hard but fair duels. In the 10th minute of the game, the DSC then clearly had problems building up the game with an aggressive forecheck from the Saale Bull and was then unable to clear the target. The hosts use the confusion in the Deggendorfer back team for a 1-0 lead.

But Deggendorf didn’t let the flow of the game get in the way and equalized in the 15th minute. Immediately after a face-off in the offensive zone, Benedikt Schopper pulls from the blue line. Petr Stloukal deflects the shot unstoppably for the Bulls goalkeeper. Both teams continue to equalize until the third break, so that the first break is 1:1.

The DSC then starts with a majority in the middle third, but can only bring slightly dangerous discs in the power play to the goal of the Saale Bulls. As the third progressed, both teams showed significantly more offensive efforts and created good opportunities here and there, but both goalkeepers held on well and destroyed even the best chances. Both teams continue to meet at eye level and the referees also leave the sporting decision to the two teams in this phase. Despite tension and goal scenes, the middle third went through without further goals and without penalties.

In the early stages of the final third, DSC scored again after a face-off. This time Leon Zitzer shoots from the blue and Lukas Miculka deflects the puck into the goal. Just 82 seconds later, Miculka made the double strike perfect again, overcoming the goalie from the turn in the short corner. But the Saxons scored shortly afterwards in the 47th minute when the DSC failed to get the disc out of the defense third.

But what follows leaves even neutral observers with a lack of understanding. Now Deggendorfer players are going to the penalty box one after the other because of small things or even without understandable reasons. Halle uses this invitation in a 5:3 majority to equalize. The lead for Halle then falls out of nowhere. The DSC cannot clear the disc in the corner. Halle uses this and brings the puck in front of the Deggendorfer Tor and uses the chance. Deggendorf tries everything in the final phase, takes Timo Pielmeier out of the goal if there are more than one man, but a mistake in the play is punished coldly by the Bulls with an empty net hit to make it 5:3.

Tore: 1:0 Lukas Valasek (9:07/Becker, Kaplan), 1:1 Petr Stloukal (14:47/Schopper), 1:2 Lukas Miculka (43:00/Zitzer, Röthke), 1:3 Lukas Miculka (44:22/Stloukal), 2:3 Tatu Vihavainen (46:30/Schmid, Merl), 3:3 Matias Varttinen (52:45/Schmid, Merl/PP2), 4:3 Jordan Kaplan (55:56/ Demmler), 5:3 Thomas Merl (57:55/Empty Net) ; Strafminute 8/6; 1762 Spectator.