Augsburg Panther in the DEL: Nothing is pink – Sport

When there were only a few derby minutes left to play, Dennis Reul raised the emotional level massively. The Augsburger Panther defender used his 193 centimeters 115 kilograms vehemently against Maximilian Kastner, Markus Eisenschmid and Andreas Eder within a few seconds of the game and in between verbally argued with Patrick Hager, the captain of EHC Red Bull Munich. “Pure emotions” could be felt there, Kastner said afterwards. Emotions that gave Augsburg another boost on Saturday in Munich’s SAP Garden, but were unable to avert the 2-3 defeat despite a final pressure phase.

Augsburg’s defeat was the ninth in a row; the Panthers didn’t even score a point in this phase. The last win was five weeks ago: a 4-2 win in Munich, when the Panthers were still in fifth place in the table. Now the AEV is once again in the middle of the relegation battle of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL).

Coach Ted Dent stood behind his players despite number nine being bankrupt. He spoke of a “good and dramatic” game, was “proud” of his players and said that “the bench was positive”. The Canadian gave it this time good copthe empathetic one, but he has recently tried something different in terms of communication. After the previous week’s 5-2 home defeat against the Iserlohn Roosters, a direct competitor in the fight against relegation, he pointed out at the press conference that his players were professionals, some already 34, 35 or 40 years old. “If they’re not ready, they’ll have to deal with it,” he said. He received encouragement from Iserlohn’s coach Doug Shedden, who, without being asked, added to the journalists: “Don’t you think that professional players should motivate themselves? Should we be the cheerleaders to get them going?” Dent couldn’t help but smile a little.

It was one of the few moments that brought a smile. One of Augsburg’s numerous problems is the start of the games. In all nine defeats, the Panthers fell behind, which caused the uncertainty to continue to grow. That’s why it was difficult in the starting third, said defender Mick Köhler in front of the Augsburg team bus, next to which a medical van had parked in the catacombs of the SAP Gardens. “You know: My God, we don’t want to concede the first goal again because everyone says: We concede the first goal every time.” But that’s already “in our heads.” Köhler, who politely thanked team manager Duanne Moeser for bringing him the flip-flops from the locker room, described the situation like this: “If someone tells you not to think of a pink panther, then you think of a pink panther. “

The performances in Munich and the 1-2 loss in Wolfsburg two days earlier make Köhler confident

Nothing is rosy with the Augsburger Panthers at the moment: in the last ten games they have scored the fewest goals of all DEL clubs (19), but conceded the most (28). In addition, both the power play (a measly six percent success rate) and the shorthanded game (61 percent, ten percent worse than the second worst) were the weakest in the league. Cody Kunyk’s power play goal to make it 2:3 in Munich (34th) was the first after more than 50 minutes without a goal with more personnel on the ice.

Köhler only has one goal when it comes to the table: “We have to get away from there as quickly as possible, we have set ourselves other goals before the season.” The performances in Munich and the 1-2 loss in Wolfsburg two days earlier are in his opinion confident because they were “much better” than in previous games. His defender colleague Max Renner also threw in a dose of fatalism: “At some point it will happen again, at some point we will win again. It just has to be that way.” Possibly as early as Tuesday at the Frankfurt Lions.