A willpower and a weak defensive performance: The Gladiators only got three points at the weekend.
Erding – The Erding Gladiators could have taken a big step towards staying up in the Bavarian League at the weekend.
But after the hard-fought 3-2 home win against VfE Ulm/Neu-Ulm, coach Thomas Vogl's team suffered a 4-6 defeat in Königsbrunn on Sunday.
Even against Ulm, the game didn't go as the coach had hoped.
"In the first third we are actually a force at home, but this time it was a disaster - especially the first ten minutes," criticized Vogl.
The Gladiators were then 0:2 behind after 31 minutes and drew hope again after the 1:2 in the 34th minute.
"I told the boys in the second break to stay positive and calm," reported Erding's gang boss.
In the 57th minute, Florian Zimmermann made it 2:2 after a great combination with Daniel Krzizok.
"The two guys have been playing together for ages, you could tell that," praised Vogl, who was happy about Mark Waldhausen's "superbly played" 3:2 a minute later.
Vogl summed it up: "You have to win games like this first." Ulm proved to be a very difficult opponent.
"It's just playoff ice hockey now," said the Gladiators coach, who had a particularly high praise for the Ulm goalkeeper Martin Niemz, who almost despaired his players: "But my team showed morale and I'm proud on the team.”
Before Sunday's game in Königsbrunn, Vogl warned ("For me, this is the strongest team in the relegation round"), and he was right.
His team never found their game and the defense didn't really deserve the name.
"I'm anything but satisfied," Vogl grumbled.
"That was 'run & gun' from our side, so we were far too open and too soft in front of our goal." Some very good chances were missed up front.
"The team did exactly the opposite of what I said and didn't implement it," he said.
Individual mistakes would ultimately have broken the neck of his team.
"I'm very disappointed," said the Erding coach thoughtfully.
He also had to do without Sebastian Busch during the game, who limped into the dressing room prematurely with a groin problem.
The Koenigsbrunn coach confirmed his colleagues.
"Both teams played with open visors and gave away the neutral zone," said Andy Becherer.
"The game could have ended 11:8." At the end, when the Gladiators closed the gap to 4:5, his team "played it down calmly and played it down well".
Vogl congratulated Becherer on the deserved victory.
That was now the third Königsbrunn success in the third meeting of the season, summed up the Gladiators trainer and therefore added with a smile to the laughter of the audience: "Next time stay at home."