The EC Peiting in the Oberliga is going in quick succession: Now it's against Höchstadt (away) and Passau (at home).
Whether top performers Ty Morris can play is extremely questionable.
Peiting - Even though EC Peiting lost their home game against Deggendorf last Wednesday (2: 7), they took the top position in another category.
Only two penalty times against the Lower Bavaria brought the team of coach Sebastian Buchwieser the jump to first place in the fairness table of the Oberliga Süd.
In 19 games, the Peitinger players collected 164 penalty minutes (an average of 8.63 per game).
Peiting's opponent Höchstadt is on the rise
Together with Rosenheim (also 164 penalty minutes, but in 22 games), the Peitinger team has the lowest value in the Oberliga Süd.
Buchwieser does not want to overestimate this topic.
“It's a double-edged thing.
Too much physical play can bring you penalties, too little brings advantages for the opponent, ”said the ECP coach.
His gaze is increasingly directed towards the coming opponents.
Particularly the Höchstadter EC, where the Peitinger performers this Friday, should be a pretty tough nut to crack.
At home in particular, the "Alligators" have shown their bite this season so far.
Only the front runner Selb managed to defeat the Höchstadter in their hall.
"It will be a very difficult task, we have to fully oppose it," said Buchwieser's assessment of the opponent, for whom he himself had tied his skates for three years, from 2008 to 2011, in the Bayern League.
He has conflicting feelings, especially when it comes to seeing Milan Kostourek again.
On the one hand, Buchwieser is looking forward to meeting the Czech, whose coach he was in Peiting for three years (2016 to 2019).
On the other hand, the ECP trainer is unlikely to be completely at ease, because at the age of 38 Kostourek is really blossoming in his second season in Höchstadt near Middle Franconia.
The Czech is the most successful goalscorer in his team with 17 goals and is currently fifth in the scorer list of the Oberliga Süd.
With his goals he has played a big part in the current soaring of the "Alligators", who have won seven of the last eight games.
In the table, the Middle Franconia have worked their way up to fourth place.
Home game opponents Passau slowly got going
In contrast, the Passau Black Hawks, who will be guests in Peiting on Sunday, are significantly further back in eleventh place.
The newcomer from the city of three rivers needed some time to get into the new league.
With two new contingent players, the Passauers slowly improved.
Liam Blackburn, who came from the Bayern league club Pfaffenhofen, has collected 24 scorer points in just twelve games.
Jeff Smith, who is sidelined because of a broken arm, has 13 points.
“To be able to score against Passau, we have to call up our best performance,” said Buchwieser.
He does not expect anything but a walk for his protégés.
He does not want to overestimate the 5-0 success in the first meeting with the Black Hawks in early December.
“We didn't play such a good game back then,” remembers the Peitinger coach.
Ultimately, it was the outstanding goalkeeper Florian Hechenrieder who ultimately brought the ECP the clear victory. "
As for the squad for the coming weekend, Buchwieser has to be prepared for a major setback.
There is a high probability that Ty Morris will be out after injuring himself in the catch-up game against Deggendorf on Wednesday.
"But we still have to wait and see what exactly he has," said Buchwieser's statement about the impending failure of his driver, whose shape curve has recently clearly shown upwards.
Alex Winkler, who is still plagued by muscular problems, will definitely not be there.
The opponents at a glance:
Höchstadter EC:
Friday, January 29th, 8 p.m., ice stadium Höchstadt on Kieferndorfer Weg.
To the opponent
: from whipping boy to team of the hour - the "Alligators" have made an astonishing change.
At the beginning of the season, the engine in Middle Franconia still stuttered tremendously, also because of various corona cases.
Six games, four defeats, that was the balance sheet at the start.
The 3:13 defeat at EC Peiting should also be remembered.
At the moment, the Höchstadter are in great shape.
They got 20 points from the last eight games, only one game was lost (2: 5 against Deggendorf).
Top scorers are ex-Peitinger Milan Kostourek with 35 points (17 goals / 18 assists) and Anton Seewald with 34 points (16 goals / 18 assists).
EHF Passau:
Sunday, January 31st, 5 p.m., Peiting ice stadium on Alfons-Peter-Straße.
To the opponent:
After a catastrophic start (eight defeats in a row), the climber from Lower Bavaria caught himself. Due to Corona, the "Black Hawks" recently had to pause, the team stayed without games for two weeks. Since last Sunday, Passau have played two games. Against the high-flyers from Höchstadt (2: 6) and the top team Regensburg (1: 4) there was one defeat. The EC Peiting has met Passau once and won 5-0 at home. The top scorer is the Canadian Liam Blackburn (24 points / 12 goals / 12 assists). The keepers Clemens Ritschel and Daniel Filimonow regularly take turns in the goal. In power play, the Passau team has the worst rate of all southern teams with a rate of 11.1 percent. Only ten hits were scored in 90 outnumbered games. In return, the penalty killing (85.4 percent / 3rd place in the league) works quite well.
