Tölzer Löwen: A horror film with a terrible ending
Created: 04/14/2022, 00:48
By: Nick Scheder
Bitter moments: Löwen coach Kevin Gaudet (right) with captain Philipp Schlager (left) and injured defender Marcus Götz after the goal that sealed the relegation of Tölz.
© Oliver Rabuser
ICE HOCKEY: The Tölzer Löwen have to go to the premier league because they weren't prepared for the inevitable.
Bad Tölz – empty ice.
Abandoned cabin.
Only the supervisors Andre "Hacky" and Ernst "Grandpa" Frech hold the fort with embarrassed faces.
The Tölzer Löwen have dismounted.
"This season - a horror film with a terrible ending," says coach Kevin Gaudet.
After the hard-fought 4-3 home defeat after extra time, which sealed the 4-2 in the play-down series, his team has to go down to the Oberliga Süd.
The bright opponent Bayreuth remains in the DEL 2.
A horror film with a terrible ending
"I've never experienced anything like it," says Gaudet.
It's sad more than anything, really hard.” At least his side put in a rousing final game.
Full commitment, big fight, nice goals, mostly well defended - not a matter of course this season.
"Everyone thought they'd have to break in at some point," says Gaudet.
"But they kept going, but they were always unlucky." The 3-2 lead only lasted until 25 seconds before the end.
It was the "man of the series", Ville Järvälainen, who sealed the relegation of Tölz with the 3:4 after 94 seconds in extra time.
Woke up at night drenched in sweat
Gaudet found the terrible 3:8 home defeat and the 1:10 swatter against Weißwasser almost even worse.
"I woke up at night bathed in sweat, couldn't sleep anymore, it hurt, I don't want to experience that again." Nevertheless, he does not shirk responsibility.
“I think I did my job, but,” says Gaudet, “we were relegated on the ice.” He blames himself after every defeat.
"I'm the coach, I take on a debt." He thought a lot about what he could have done differently.
It was about survival for the manageable bunch, about finding energy for every game, every change.
But for other interventions, his hands were mostly tied with the mini-squad – and Gaudet himself comes to this conclusion.
Relegation candidate with a small squad
"I said from the start that if we compete with the small squad, we're relegation candidates." There was a lack of money.
A lot of money after Wee stopped flowing.
Added to that was bad luck.
A lot of bad luck: with injuries, Corona and with the commitments.
Max French replacement Grant Besse "was a very bad replacement".
Nico Kolb thought more of himself than the bottom line showed.
Thomas Brandl and Pascal Aquin also lacked efficiency.
Finger fractures, groin injuries and concussions
Lukas Vantuch did not want to keep the lions for financial reasons.
With Ian Brady and Dominik Bohac they had two error-prone defenders, Markus Eberhardt fluctuated between genius and madness and took too many penalties.
Talent Maximilian Leitner made progress.
Only Marcus Götz made a good impression - when he played: He was out for almost the whole season - two broken fingers after he was hit twice by the same finger.
There were also various groin injuries and concussions in the squad.
Suddenly the DNL keeper has to go
Then the goalkeeper problem: Marco Wölfl was out early for the whole season, replaced by Jimmy Hertel, who did not live up to expectations and was soon overtaken by keeper number three, 21-year-old Josef Hölzl.
There was a time during the play-downs against Crimmitschau when both were injured.
At 1:10, DNL keeper Joshua Baron had to collect the discs from the goal.
Hölzl did well after initial nervousness in the relegation round.
"But we couldn't expect him to save us from the league, he's young and needs a goalkeeping coach," says Gaudet.
In addition to reinforcements in defence, he missed that the most.
Even bottom light Selb has upgraded
"Our opponents have strengthened themselves extremely for the play-downs, we haven't," complained Gaudet.
Even newly promoted Selber Wölfe, who were at the bottom in the main round, upgraded with five new players for the relegation round - and managed to stay up in the first attempt.
In the case of the lions, nothing happened before the start of the relegation round.
The new Löwen boss Ralph Bader only wanted to comment on a season balance after the individual talks with the players on Thursday.
But the Garmisch-Partenkirchner shifted the responsibility to his two predecessors after the last play-down.
"The mistakes were made at the beginning of the season, going into the season with such a small squad is irresponsible.
Our hands were tied," he said after the game on Tuesday.
"It's very bitter, but we're getting up again."
And not everything was bad for Gaudet: "We were in the play-off places for 40 days," says the lion coach.
"I was very proud that in the difficult league we managed to stay away from the relegation zone with just two and a half rows."
Coming in despite the Corona infection
Then Philipp Schlager and Tyler McNeely were injured;
extremely important player.
Since then things have gone downhill.
And then Corona came.
"The pandemic cost us the league," says Gaudet.
15 players dropped out.
Games were canceled or relocated during this time.
But then the lions had to play again - with minimum strength and players who had not trained for weeks and were not yet fit after the illness.
What Gaudet doesn't understand: "In the previous season, the play-downs were canceled for reasons of fairness because of Corona." Now the numbers were five times as bad and relegation was played out.
“Can you understand that?” asks Gaudet and would prefer to have the matter clarified before a court.
Just as it may do DEL relegated Krefeld.
At least that's what financier and club boss Sergey Saveljev announced.
Time for goodbyes at the lions
For Gaudet, the descent also means a farewell.
"I will not coach Tölzer in the Oberliga," the 58-year-old clarifies.
And even if the lions were to take action against relegation and were right, Gaudet would not be persuaded to play another season.
"Then the budget would be even smaller because there will no longer be any Corona aid from the government in the future."
Contracts do not apply to the Oberliga
And also for one or the other player it is time to say goodbye.
Some already have contracts with other clubs.
Current contracts, such as Lubor Dibelka, do not apply to the Oberliga.
Defender talent Maximilian Leitner probably follows the call of a Baden-Württemberg DEL club.
Even if Tölz doesn't benefit when young players leave their training club: "I'm very proud that I was able to develop such talents - even if nobody ever believes me," says Gaudet.
The question will now be around which talents a premier league team is built.