Ice hockey with a heart: Welcome, "Paul"

Created: 03/23/2022, 09:25 am

Feels very comfortable with the Klostersee U15 team after just a few days: Pavlo "Paul" Nikolaiev (lying down).

© Photo: Stefan Rossmann

The EHC Klostersee has shown heart.

A 13-year-old boy from the Ukraine was allowed to throw in the first puck before the start of the ice hockey Bayernliga playoffs against Amberg.

At the same time, "Paul", who fled Kyiv with his mother and grandmother two weeks earlier, is allowed to play for the U15s in Grafing.

Grafing

– Pavlo Nikolaiev admitted he was a bit nervous on Friday evening shortly before the start of the semi-final series in the Bayernliga playoffs between EHC Klostersee and the Amberg Wild Lions.

Not unusual for a 13-year-old boy who, two weeks earlier, fled from embattled Kyiv with his mother and grandmother to stay with friends in Germany and will be the center of attention for the symbolic “face off” in a few minutes in front of a good 800 spectators.

After the terrible war of aggression by Russia on Ukraine was commemorated with a minute's silence in the previous ice hockey games in this country, the Grafingers decided this time for this special action.

Solidarity is an extremely stressed word in these times and yet, despite all the powerlessness, one wants to stand for peace and standing together as a European ice hockey family, emphasized Martin Sauter.

"In addition to all the necessary support, it's also about distracting the people who come to us at least a little and getting them to think differently," added the youth leader from Klosters.

The involvement in the training of the EHC-U15 should bring Pavlo, who was accommodated together with his mother in Maitenbeth, while his older brother, father and uncle from the Ukraine were not allowed to leave the country, should bring mental distraction and also integration.

Tatjana Nikolaiev is particularly worried about her husband and son, although the two are currently not at home in the capital, which is fought over every day, but a good 550 kilometers further west in Lviv (Lemberg).

But even there, only about 70 kilometers from the Polish border, there were already Russian air raids.

“We were lucky, we were able to cross the border after three and a half hours.

I know of others who had to wait ten hours or more," she says of the escape,

which she drove to friends from Poland via the Czech Republic and Austria.

That was on March 6, a week and a half after the attack on the homeland.

Pavlo Nikolaiev, who is active at home in the youth team of Sokol Kyiv, found out about "ice hockey in the area" after arrival and thus came to the EHC.

He has been training with the Klosterseer U15s for a good week, equipment and skates "sponsored" by Toni Hager (father of national striker Patrick Hager, EHC Red Bull Munich) and former EHCler Johannes Wieser, who is part of the coaching staff.

Youth manager Sauter even managed to get a playing permit for the defender within a few days, so that he could play in the two U15 home games in the Bayernliga finals last weekend.

The first words of German have already been internalized, Pavlo Nikolaiev speaks English fluently, as well as Ukrainian and Russian.

Then his coach Yuri Tsurenkov is in demand, who has lived in Vienna for 22 years and has long been an Austrian citizen, but comes from near Moscow and of course speaks his native language.

"Pavlo is a great boy who feels really comfortable and has also been well received," says Tsurenkov happily.

The EHC is now hoping that he will be able to switch from the Vaterstetten high school to the Grafing school permanently as quickly as possible.

"That would be a great relief for the family and would also make it easier for him to integrate, because eight children from our U15s attend the local high school," says Sauter.

After the end of school until the start of training he would be very welcome in the families of his fellow players for food and care.

A family friend of the Nikolaievs arrived in Grafing at the weekend.

Elli Huber, Chairwoman of the Grafing Women's Union and City Councillor, has made an apartment available to them in Zwiefirst.

Their son, Pavlo's friend Taras, has also been in training at the EHC since the beginning of the week and has been equipped in the same way.

Welcome!

ele

Has taken the young Ukrainian under his wing: EHC youth coach Yuri Tsurenkov.

© Photo: ele