River Rats: Full throttle towards eighth place

Created: 11/25/2022, 2:00 p.m

By: Thomas Wenzel

The recipe for success?

Coach Hans Tauber Jr.

has sworn the River Rats to the second half of the season.

Today against Amberg, the ESC wants to start catching up.

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The Geretsrieder River Rats want to tackle the second half of the Bayernliga with commitment in order to still qualify for the promotion round.

A first test is the home game this Friday against ERSC Amberg

Geretsried – Halftime in the Bayern ice hockey league was also the right time for Hans Tauber Jr. to take stock.

Before training on Tuesday, the coach of ESC Geretsried Tacheles spoke to his protégés: "We scored 15 points in the preliminary round, that's clearly not enough." And the 37-year-old listed a few games in which the River Rats almost negligently gave away the points - in the defeats against Buchloe (1:4) and in Ulm (3:4) and Amberg (2:4), for example.

"We were often the better team, but we didn't win because we didn't score our goals," complained Tauber.

In any case, there was reason to give the starting shot for a catch-up race and to gradually reduce the gap to eighth place.

“From now on we will give it our all in every game.

We'll see whether it will be enough for the promotion round in the end," says the ESC coach.

The River Rats want to get started this Friday against ERSC Amberg (7:30 p.m.).

"In home games, of course, a win is a must," emphasizes Tauber.

The people from Upper Palatinate are known for being physical: "Every player has to be prepared for that and fight back from the first minute - not just from the second third." the Geretsrieders (166 minutes/third place in the fair play table) also had chances in the power play.

"We've already become more effective there, but we can make it even more efficient," says the coach.

He assumes that the Wild Lions will be stronger than in the first leg, when top scorer Felix Koebele and Canadian Tanner Campbell, who is second to Brett Mennear, were absent.

At the ESC, which has no games on Sunday, striker Ondrej Horvath is available again.

Striker Jakob Heigl and defender Stephan Englbrecht could also make their comeback.

There is a question mark over Bernhard Jorde, Marek Haloda and Benedikt May, who were absent during the week due to illness.