The EC Peiting season: failures, convincing youngsters and one foreigner too many
Created: 04/06/2022, 11:48 am
By: Roland Halmel
The top scorers in one picture: (from left) Captain Andreas Feuerecker, Nardo Nagtzaam and Ty Morris.
©Andreas Mayr
It was a mixed season for the ice hockey Oberliga club EC Peiting.
An instructive and moving one.
A review.
Peiting
– Some things were new at EC Peiting when the upper division ice hockey team started the new season in October.
With Anton Saal, the ECP management relied on a young novice coach.
And in the foreign positions, the top division no longer relied on a striker and a defender, but on two offensive forces.
The latter turned out to be less fortunate in retrospect, as the Peitingen team showed significantly more weaknesses in defense than in attack.
But giving former captain Saal a chance to prove himself as a coach turned out to be the right decision.
The 36-year-old led the team well through what was anything but an easy season.
"I've learned a lot, even if I've definitely made one or two mistakes," summed up the ECP coach after finishing eighth in the preliminary round, which meant that direct qualification for the play-offs was missed.
"Sixth place would have been possible, but we ran out of breath in the final sprint and lacked that little bit of luck, so we dropped points."
EC Peiting: sovereign in the pre-play-offs, inferior in the play-offs
In the pre-play-offs, the people from Peitinger defeated EV Lindau in a fairly sovereign manner - they achieved two wins in two games.
In the first play-off round, however, it was already over, as the champions of the Oberliga Nord, the "Saale Bulls" Halle, proved to be too strong.
"We could have done something in the first two games, but the bottom line is that Halle deservedly progressed," Saal sums up.
The ECP lost all three duels with the "Bulls", who could not be slowed down, especially when they were outnumbered.
From captain to coach: Anton Saal completed his first season behind the rink.
© Roland Halmel
"All in all, the season was okay given the difficult circumstances, but in the end we lacked consistency," says Saal about his debut season behind the gang.
Positive tests for the corona virus and injuries threw the ECP, which had started the season well, off track in late autumn.
The Pfaffenwinkler had to cope with up to eight failures at the same time.
“Our squad was too thin for that,” admits Saal.
He was therefore forced to bring in many young players, some of whom knew how to take advantage of their chances.
Striker Markus Czogallik and defender Maximilian Söll became regulars.
A player had to leave early
On the other hand, Eetu-Ville Arkiomaa, who signed with great advance praise, fell short of expectations and had to resign shortly after the half-time point of the season.
When the Finn left, the people from Peiting signed two new foreigners.
Defender Lukas Motloch and forward Shane Heffernan should help fill in the gaps in the squad.
But they could only do that to a limited extent, since only one of them was in the squad at a time.
This was due to Nardo Nagtzaam's slow naturalization process.
The Dutchman, who became the top scorer in the league and was therefore voted player of the year in the Oberliga Süd, waited in vain for the German passport.
Since only two foreigners are allowed per team and Nagtzaam was indispensable, one of the two newcomers always had to take a seat in the stands.
"I couldn't line up according to performance, but had to go where I needed one," said Saal, regretting the situation.
“But that reflects our whole season well.
A youngster and an old hand are guarding the goal of EC Peiting: Maximilian Söll (l.) has become a regular this season, goalkeeper Florian Hechenrieder (r.) was the proven support.
© René Säuberlich
The performance of the Peitingers, which was nevertheless often decent, was seen – probably due to the pandemic – significantly fewer spectators than in previous seasons.
In the main round, the average for home games was 328 fans.
For comparison: In the 2019/2020 season it was still 786 visitors.
The ECP was able to largely compensate for the financial losses with state corona aid and also income from live broadcasts on Sprade-TV.
"I think we'll get away with a black eye," CFO Werner Wiedemann-Mozart is confident that EC Peiting has survived the second year of Corona well.
How things will continue with the Oberliga is still open.
With the exception of Marco Habermann, no player's contract has yet been extended.
Meanwhile, there are increasing signs that the ECP does not have to reorient itself, at least when it comes to coaching, even if the club's management has not yet publicly commented on this.