Defender with goal instincts

Created: 06/07/2022, 19:56

By: Patrick Hilmes

Can do both: Jan Niklas Pietsch knows how to prevent goals, but also how to score and prepare for them.

© Eckehard Schulz/Imago

A record like a striker: Jan Niklas Pietsch knows where the goal is.

But his main task is to prevent goals.

He will be pursuing this job in the coming season in the service of SC Riessersee.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen - 28, 27, 40, 28, 32, 39. These are not lottery numbers, but the yield of points scored by Jan Niklas Pietsch in the seasons 2016/17 to 2021/22 - without playoff statistics.

Reads as if SC Riessersee had committed another striker for the coming season.

Not correct.

"I'm absolutely a defender," emphasizes the 31-year-old, who will wear the jersey of the white and blue from now on.

The SCR has thus caught a player who understands his job multidimensionally and does not just focus on one area.

Of course he knows his position description, but doesn't see it as a limitation, but as a basis for further possibilities.

“There is work to be done at the back.

After that, you can get creative at the front,” emphasizes Pietsch.

But you can't do it alone.

"If you play hockey well as a team, you lose points for every scorer." He likes the rush that comes over you when you score a goal or set it up.

"But the feeling of preventing goals is at least as good."

No desire to bob around in midfield

The coming season should also work at the SCR, like the past in Hanover.

Pietsch last played for the Scorpions.

The Riesserseers still know this team very well and don't have good memories of them.

The Lower Saxony had sent the SCR into the summer break early with an ultimately sovereign 3-1 win in the playoff round of 16 series.

But without Pietsch.

He only attacked actively again in the quarter-finals against Rosenheim.

A broken hand in the middle put him out of action.

Bitter, he would have liked to play against the SCR.

Now he is looking forward to playing for him.

Why?

On the one hand he says: "New season, new luck." On the other hand, the ambitions of the white-blues - targeted promotion to DEL2 2024 - convinced him.

Lurking around somewhere in the middle of the table is not for Pietsch.

North-South commuting

With his move to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Pietsch is continuing his north-south commute.

Born in Bad Homburg and learned to play ice hockey in Bad Nauheim, the 31-year-old was drawn up and down the map.

Two players also crossed his path, whom he now meets again in Werdenfelser Land.

He's even seen one.

After Pietsch had signed his contract with the SCR, there was a bit of sightseeing in the market town with his buddy Thomas Schmid - also access.

"Since our time together in Deggendorf, we have always kept in touch," says Pietsch.

He also wore the jersey of Herner EV at the same time as Sam Verelst – Riessersee's new striker.

Please sign here: SCR coach Pat Cortina (right) is convinced of his new defender.

© SC Riessersee

No disadvantage if a new player does not face a completely unknown environment.

Coach Pat Cortina, who describes Pietsch as an “absolute character in the dressing room”, knows this too.

"He lives for ice hockey and has focused his priorities on his sport in an absolutely professional manner.

He is very experienced, is an all-round defender and can take on various roles in our defence." He has proven all this often enough, in addition to his scorer points, other numbers are also very meaningful in this regard: 13 games in the DEL, 101 in the DEL2, 452 in the premier league.