River Rats rehearse for the relegation round

For the last home game, ESC Geretsried welcomes TSV Peißenberg on Friday.

Coach Hans Tauber Jr.

would like to finish the preliminary round successfully.

Geretsried – Last Sunday, the Geretsried ice hockey team took off symbolically right in front of the nose in the direction of the Bayernliga championship round: ESC Kempten secured eighth place with a 4-1 win over EHC Waldkraiburg, giving the River Rats their 4-2 -Success at ERV Schweinfurt was no longer of any use.

"Yes, in training you noticed that the mood was a bit depressed," reports coach Hans Tauber junior.

So what kind of motivational skills does the 37-year-old have to muster before the last preliminary round match this Friday against TSV Peißenberg (8 p.m.), in which the table position is no longer at stake for either club?

"Clearly, we want to keep the three points in Geretsried and finish the second half of the season in the best possible way," emphasized Tauber.

However, as the trainer makes clear, you will “not play by hook or by crook” to win: “Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether we go into the relegation round in ninth or tenth place.” A good dress rehearsal for the playdowns that start in a week is the derby in any case, "because of course we want to play our game again".

The coach is aware that it will not be easy against the Miners.

"They're extremely dangerous offensively," he recalls with horror after the 7-5 first-leg defeat on November 20th.

After all, there are four Peißenbergers among the ten best scorers in the Bayernliga with Dejan Vogl (57 points), the US brothers Brett and Derek Mecrones and Dominic Krabbat.

Most recently, the seventh-placed team beat Pfaffenhofen 10-2 at home, but lost 6-2 to Ulm/Neu-Ulm.

"They are obviously not quite as strong away from home as they are at home.

But you also have to see how seriously they take the last preliminary round game," says Tauber.

The ESC coach has to rearrange his blocks a bit.

This time, top scorer Ondrej Horvath has been sentenced to watch because of his game misconduct penalty.

Goalkeeper Johanna May is in advanced training but is out, as are Daniel Merl (ill) and Daniel Bursch (injured).