The gladiators conquer Schweinfurt easily.
The ice champion, who prevented the game from being stopped again, received the most applause.
Erding – The Erding Gladiators have taken a big step towards the championship round.
In the 7: 3 (4: 1, 1: 0, 2: 2) against ERV Schweinfurt they not only brought in a three after three pointless games, but also distanced a direct competitor by nine points.
In between there was fear of another game being abandoned, this time for technical reasons.
"We got off to a good start, we had big plans, wanted to play aggressively and avoid stupid counterattacks through the middle," analyzed Erding's team boss Felix Schütz in the press conference after the game.
And the tactic worked.
The Gladiators set a pace unseen this season that left the Mighty Dogs struggling to catch their breath and was 4-0 after 15 minutes.
"Erding played brutal forechecking, very aggressively, and we weren't able to build up the game," said Schweinfurt's coach AndreasClothes appreciatively.
"And if you can't free yourself, then it's going to be the way it has to be." The Mighty Dogs coach then took a time-out, and shortly afterwards the score was only 1:4.
Erding's defender Basti Cramer saved for his defeated goalkeeper Christoph Schedlbauer - standing on the line - with his hand.
The first-class referee Sebastian Eisenhut decided on a penalty, which Dylan Hood safely converted.
The first third break was strange.
Because a fire alarm went off, the eastern gate at the ice master's was automatically locked and the ice machine couldn't go out and prepare the ice.
"Head Ice Master" Robert Gruber, who was actually free, was informed and drove from home, from the eastern district, to the ice rink.
He finally managed to open the gate.
But that was not all.
As the Zamboni spun in circles, the gate locked again.
The attempt to drive the ice machine on the west side of the ice failed because it was too narrow there.
Gruber managed to "outsmart" the mechanics again, and after a break of almost three quarters of an hour - the team of referees showed a lot of patience - the match could continue.
"The second third was a bit of a mess, and the third third like last week," said Schütz.
"We could have scored 12 or 13 goals there, we had that many chances." From the second period onwards, the guests also took a tougher stance, conceding two game penalties and a ten-minute disciplinary penalty and had after a player was already warming up injured, only ten field players left on the bench.
"The game penalties help you brutally, of course," said ERV trainer dresses sarcastically.
"With ten men we just tried to do cosmetics." That was also successful and the defeat remained within limits.
His opponent Schütz did not take the aggressive style of play of the Mighty Dogs any further tragically.
"They just tried to play hard and not let us get into the game anymore." That's legitimate.
He was more annoyed by the games we lost in Königsbrunn and Peißenberg, "when we didn't create our chances.
But there are games like that, and they were a good lesson for us”.
Ice master Gruber saves the game
Lessons learned from defeats