There was great astonishment and disappointment in the Erdinger camp.
Lukas Miculka is gone again.
Erding - Actually, the Erding Gladiators wanted to calmly concentrate on the league game weekend, with the home game tonight (8 p.m.) against the Schongau Mammuts and the away game on Sunday (5 p.m.) at the Buchloe Pirates.
But now there is another topic in focus: newcomer Lukas Miculka will leave the Gladiators and switch to the upper division Deggendorfer SC.
The Erdinger fans were very happy when the transfer of Lukas Miculka was announced in the spring. The 32-year-old top striker came from local rivals ESC Dorfen and had declared at the time that he wanted to do a regular job in addition to ice hockey and that Erding would be the best place to do it. The German-Czech had injured his hand in preparation, was not yet in the squad at the start of the league game and was working on his comeback. But now everything is different.
The 32-year-old had approached those responsible for the gladiators and asked for the contract to be terminated because he wanted to move to the Oberliga in Deggendorf. "On the one hand, we are of course disappointed," says Gladiators' press spokesman David Whitney, "on the other hand, we don't want to stand in the way, because trying to keep someone under duress has never done anything". He also thinks it's a shame, "because we actually wanted to build something up with Lukas so that we could possibly aim for the next higher league with him, and we also wanted to include him as a coach in the younger generation." As Whitney further reports, “Luke said that he had noticed that ice hockey and work didn't work and that he would rather be a professional again. He already had an offer from Deggendorf. "The contract has meanwhile been terminated,Whitney does not provide any information about the exact changeover modalities: "We have agreed not to disclose this."
And that's what Miculka says himself: “It has nothing to do with Erding or Erdinger ice hockey.
I just want to be a professional again and play better. "
Erding's coach Thomas Vogl cannot hide his disappointment at the departure of Miculka, "because I made sure that he comes to us."
But he adds fiercely: "I'm not going to sit in the corner and start crying." He heard of the upcoming change last week and put together his storm series against Kempten and Schweinfurt accordingly.
"That's why I was really happy that we scored six goals twice and that our scorers were also widely spread - that is our strength."
Vogl prefers to look ahead to the weekend.
However, a wave of illness raged in the cabin, "with colds, flu and gastrointestinal tract, and on Tuesday we only had five men in training".
Gantschnig, Bernhardt and Furtner will be out for another two weeks, goalkeeper Christoph Schedlbauer will initially only sit on the bench.
Vogl still hopes that he can get a reasonably powerful troop together, "because Schongau and Buchloe, who play roughly the same style, will demand everything from us, especially when it comes to fighting".
But he is certain: "We can do that - even without Miculka."
Tonight everything is still running according to the 3G rule, that is, in the ice rink there is a mask requirement on the field, the TSV Erding expressly announced.
