Game one between Erding and Miesbach rises tonight.
The Gladiators are at their best.
Erding
– Let's go to the semi-finals: The Erding Gladiators start the semi-finals against TEV Miesbach this evening at 8 p.m. in their home arena.
Game two takes place on Sunday at 6 p.m. in Miesbach.
The game is played in "best-of-five" mode, which means that three victories are required to make it into the final series.
Erding's team boss Felix Schütz can hardly wait.
He says: "We're looking forward to the semi-finals."
The whole circus about the pairings for the semi-finals (see comment on page 11) does not interest him, emphasizes the Gladiators team boss.
"I don't care at all," says Schütz.
"If we want to get to the final, we have to beat everyone anyway - and we can beat anyone." And he adds: "I'm happy with Miesbach." There's a reason for that, because he's still thinking about the 6-1 defeat in the Oberland when his team didn't have the slightest chance with the leader.
"It was only after that that we really got going," Schütz recalls.
“Back then we still had a lot of sick and injured people and we started with almost ten youngsters.
Tomas Plihal wasn't there either, so what we imagined back then means nothing to me."
The Miesbachers had mastered the qualifying round with ease, ahead of Amberg, who had turned up the heat in the second half of the season, Schongau and Königsbrunn, who clearly finished first in Group A with just one defeat in the championship round.
The TEV has an above-average team, from resolute and extremely strong defenders to ice-cold executioners in attack, above all the Czech Bohumil Slavicek.
After the game on Tuesday, the Erdinger Eishackler had no training on Wednesday, on Thursday a relaxed session was announced.
Since no one suffered an injury in the quarter-final series, team boss Schütz can once again send his best squad onto the ice.
Incidentally, if the Gladiators win, they won't come back to the ice to celebrate with the fans, Schütz announces as a precaution and asks for your understanding, because ice hockey players are superstitious.
In the 2010/11 series, the Erdingers had euphorically celebrated winning the semi-final against Schweinfurt with the fans and then promptly lost the final series against Sonthofen.
The current Gladiators trainer Ales Jirik was there as a player.
"I think the fans accept that," says Schütz and adds: "There won't be a press conference after the games in Erding either - only when the series is over." WOLFGANG KRZIZOK