Ice hockey: Klosterseer U17 youth trumps in Mannheim
Created: 01/11/2023, 13:00
By: Julian Betzl
The EHC Klostersee U17 team with (kneeling, from left) Luka Brlic, Kilian Jöbstl, Jan Markmann, Tobias Nettesheim, Bálint Kondor, Robin Merwald and (standing, from left) assistant coach Paul Raab was proud of their participation in the final in Mannheim , Joshua Violini, Benni Oswald, Yannick Schmid, Patrick Ziegler, Simon Pfeil, Jan Hessler, coach Markus Eberl, Ferdinand Löchle, Gabriel Dobis, Lukas Eberl, Benno Golanski and Tobias Lachner.
Not in the picture: supervisor Michi Merwald, Dani Golanski and Claudia Ziegler.
Photo: association © association
Large tournaments, let alone of (inter-) national large format are rather rare in the ice hockey youth field.
The 8th Robert Müller Memorial Tournament of the Mannheim ERC was once again a welcome exception for the hopes of young talent from EHC Klostersee.
Grafing – For U17 coach Markus Eberl, the exciting two-day event in the adjoining halls of the large SAP Arena was more of a “must do”.
After all, Eberl, 43, had often shared the locker room and ice surface with the national goalkeeper (127 international matches), who died in 2009 and was born in Rosenheim, during his own professional career as a defender (including at EHC Munich).
"The EHC Klostersee was Robert's first station in the senior division (1997 to 1998, editor's note), after he had played as a striker in his youth," Eberl recalls on the phone with a laugh of Müller's all-rounder, who was in the then third-rate "2.
Liga” started his great career (213 DEL games) between the Grafinger posts.
"We played together and against each other, so I also followed his cancer." Since Müller had even made his comeback for the Kölner Haie after a partially surgically removed brain tumor, the news of Müller's death just a few months later "was a huge shock". , according to Eberl.
He was all the more proud of the "brutal team performance" that Klostersee's U17s even pushed open the door to the final in Mannheim against opponents who were sometimes two divisions higher.
First, the Belgian participants Cold Play Sharks Mechelen were clearly defeated with 4:0 goals and the host team from MERC with 3:0.
On the second day of the tournament, the Grafingers then prevailed with a 4:3 win after a penalty shoot-out against the Löwen Frankfurt and 5:0 against the Stuttgart Young Rebels, before even defeating the DEL offspring and top favorites Young Roosters at the end of the group phase Iserlohn was able to defeat 4:2.
"You could see how much self-confidence the lads had in the game, which is extremely important at this age," said EHC coach Markus Eberl about first place after the group phase and the associated reunion with Iserlohn in the final.
Once again, his protégés seemed to be able to surpass themselves, turning a 0:2 deficit into a 3:2 lead until the final phase.
“In the last five minutes we were just broken.
We ran out of concentration and we noticed the one game we played more”, Eberl analyzed the game-deciding, late double strike by the Iserlohn team to make it 3-4.
“Nevertheless, it was nice to see how close the team has grown.
We need this group dynamic,” Eberl also expressly thanked the parents who had traveled with them, who cheered both the second place of the EHC juniors and the award for Lukas Eberl as the best player of the tournament.
"It wouldn't have been possible without the great effort of the parents", Grafing's coach hopes that next year the EHC "maybe even be represented with two teams" at the 9th edition of the Robert Müller Memorial Tournament.
In the Bavarian league, the U17s of the EHC continue after the 12:1 thrashing at the bottom of the league ESC River Rats Geretsried on Saturday (5 p.m.) in the local Wildbräu Arena against the pursuer EV Ravensburg.
"Everything is still possible," Eberl swears his second-placed team to the last eight league games in the championship race, "but it's brutal that only the first climbs.
You need a bit of luck."