ESC coach Tauber: "We no longer have it in our own hands"

Created: 01/13/2023, 02:00 p.m

By: Thomas Wenzel

The River Rats are hoping for more physical presence on Friday in Schongau, where defender Bernhard Jorde (left) will be making his comeback after a long injury break.

© hanslippert

Before the tough Friday game at EA Schongau, coach Hans Tauber jun.

the chance of the Geretsrieder River Rats in eighth place and thus the qualification for the championship round rather skeptical.

Geretsried – It happened like Hans Tauber jun.

had feared.

Because the Geretsrieder ice hockey team was not playing on the Sunday reserved for catch-up games, the River Rats had to nibble on the recent 0:6 bankruptcy against EHC Königsbrunn for a few days - without the possibility of immediate compensation.

"But we had already analyzed the encounter a little in a small group on Friday evening," reports the ESC coach.

The team resumed training on Tuesday.

"The direction is right, also in terms of the head", Tauber stated.

The coach quickly found out why the penguins suffered their heaviest defeat of the season: “The clubs in the top six in the table in particular are brutally efficient against us.

And we didn't manage to get their top scorer Marco Sternheimer under control.” The long-time Augsburg DEL striker was involved in five goals in Geretsried.

The game this Friday at 8 p.m. at EA Schongau should be similarly difficult for the River Rats, who have slipped down to tenth place.

"A compact team that comes from the unity of the team," Tauber knows about the third-placed team.

Most recently, the Mammuts, who have been coached by Markus Ratberger as Rainer Höfler's successor since December, won in Pfaffenhofen (6:4) and in the prestigious derby against Peißenberg (4:2).

Top scorer is Florian Höfler with 37 points;

Canadian Tristan Gagnon and US boy Ryan Murphy, who came from Erding two weeks ago, occupy the contingent positions.

"It's clear to us," says the ESC coach: "If we want to finish eighth, we have to win our remaining three games.

And Kempten has to lose all four of their remaining matches.” A tricky situation, “because it's no longer in our hands”.

However, the 37-year-old emphasizes that it is primarily important "that we make the main round as successful as possible".

In Schongau, the River Rats have to do without the injured goalkeeper Johanna May and all-rounder Daniel Merl.

The defenders Dominic Fuchs and Bernhard Jorde are ready for action again.