The Tölzer Löwen celebrated a surprising 7:5 win on Friday evening in the Oberliga derby at the Starbulls Rosenheim.
After all, the guests were already 2:5 behind in front of more than 3300 spectators shortly before the end of the second period.
"Relieved" was therefore Coach Ryan Foster's first word at the press conference after the game.
Rosenheim/Bad Tölz – The guests took the lead early on through the strong Tyler Ward, but then the hosts dominated the action and scored three goals by Dominik Kolb, Max Vollmayer and Lukas Laub before the break in the first third – the two-goal lead was then justified.
Bad Tölz fought and came through Dillon Eichstadt in the second half, but Rosenheim's response was two goals from Norman Hauner and Tim Lucca Krüger.
Rosenheim now looked like the sure winner.
But then there was a sticking point, because from the third Tölzer goal, which Ward marked 25 seconds before the end of the second period, the guests were on top.
"The goal gave us a lot of life," admitted Löwen coach Foster.
There was a lot of confidence for the dressing room address.
"We never lost faith," said Foster - meaning not only this game, but also the last few weeks.
Not so with the Starbulls, who could actually run out with a broad chest and suddenly lost the thread.
44 seconds after the restart, Ward marked the 4:5 from Tölzer's point of view with his third goal - and suddenly the Rosenheim team ran off track.
"A lot of action without eggs," coach Jari Pasanen saw.
You played “as if it had been a preparatory game”.
Something like that is of course also punished: Sören Sturm equalized in the power play, grid player Florian Kästele even put Tölz in the lead - a whole 36 seconds lay between these two goals.
Foster was "hugely" happy for the youngster: "He always gives 100 percent, makes smart decisions, almost like an experienced player." when ex-Tölzer Tyler McNeely had the half-empty goal in front of him.
The game was decided five seconds before the end when Ludwig Nirschl scored the seventh goal into the orphaned Rosenheim goal.
SB Rosenheim - Tölzer Löwen 5: 7 (3: 1, 2: 2, 0: 4) - Goals: 0: 1 (3rd) Ward (Fischhaber, Nirschl), 1: 1 (11th) Kolb (Knaub, Pretnar ), 2: 1 (12th) Vollmayer (Strodel, Reiter), 3: 1 (18th) Laub (Möchel), 3: 2 (25th) Eichstadt (Nirschl, Ward) 4: 2 (30th) Hauner/ (Vollmayer, Laub), 5: 2 (38.) Krüger (Schmidpeter, Edfelder), 5: 3 (40.) Ward (Fischhaber), 5: 4 (41.) Ward (Nirschl, Fischhaber), 5: 5 ( 46.) Sturm (Ott, Brandl 5-4), 5: 6 (47.) Kästele (Ribarik, Brandl), 5: 7 (60.) Nirschl (ENG);
Referee: Gossmann/Haupt;
Penalty minutes: Rosenheim 8, Bad Tölz 9. - Spectators: 3345.
