The U20s from EC Peiting and EHC Nuremberg are in an exciting DNL semi-final.
With a lot of effort, the ECP forced a third game - that's in Peiting.
Peiting – Anyone who saw Dennis Krutsch's stomach felt the pain with him.
The musculature had assumed a color mixture of blue and green.
Krutsch threw himself into a Nuremberg slap shot and stopped the puck with his stomach.
It hurt a lot, but it was vital for the EC Peiting U20s.
In the final minutes of this away game, the ECP defended its narrow lead (2:1) with "pure work", as coach Markus Gleich put it.
Even the pretty players like Niklas Greil, who scored twice in this second game, or Krutsch turned into worker bees for the final spurt, blocked and checked pretty much everything and everyone away from their own goal.
Dennis Krutsch ended the evening with a shot into the orphaned Nuremberg box to make it 3-1.
After the home defeat of the day before (2:3), EC Peiting equalized in the semi-final series to 1:1.
EC Peiting equalizes 1-1 in play-off series
Next Saturday, March 18, at 5:45 p.m., the decisive duel for entry into the final of the DNL III South will take place.
In Peiting.
In the Gallic village, as they like to say.
The opponent there is already certain: Deggendorfer SC has qualified for it quite confidently.
This playoff series is for hockey lovers.
Despite the young age, despite the league (Division III), both teams reproduce so many elements from the professional field.
Build-up, power play, counterattack – looks like the big ones.
"It's outstanding ice hockey at that age," agrees Markus Gleich.
He chatted a little longer with his colleague Torsten Glück from Nuremberg on Sunday evening after the end of the game.
The two know each other very well, they talk on the phone almost every three days because they are ambassadors for the same goal - albeit in different ways.
High level on the Peitinger and Nuremberg side
Nuremberg has been playing power hockey since they were young.
And that's what both games looked like.
In the first third, the EHC stormed "with 180" on the Peitingen third, as coach Gleich says.
"They don't give you any time, they're on the enemy immediately and come like the fire brigade." The ECP knew about the strength of the Franconians, they couldn't prevent the attack on their own in the first game.
"They took us by surprise," says the coach.
In retrospect, both games could actually be broken down to the start.
On Saturday the EHC led 2:0 and won.
Peiting's Veste held on Sunday.
It was 0-0 after the first half.
The ECP won.
The third game will take place on March 18th in Peiting
The men from Peiting knew: After the fire at the beginning, their time will come.
"Nobody can play that so brutally intensely for 60 minutes," explains Markus Gleich.
With every passing minute, his team spread out over the field, sending his “technicians” Greil, Krutsch, Alekna and Co. on an expedition into the Nuremberg zone.
Sometimes they settled in there for minutes, earning chance after chance.
It was extreme in the last third of game one.
The statisticians recorded 21:4 shots for the ECP.
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The ECP equalized the 0:2 deficit with goals from Krutsch (outnumbered) and Moritz Zöller.
With so many opportunities, there should have been more.
But EHC goalkeeper Michael Kunstmann made a splendid save and teammate Michael Schepel scored the goal of his life, a slap shot into the short cross corner.
"He never hits him like that again, the hole was five centimeters wide," says Gleich.
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Everything was even more intense on Sunday in Nuremberg, which was also due to the venue.
The teams competed in the large arena.
The ice surface there has special dimensions, is smaller than the Peitinger version.
"You have to play even faster," says the coach.
Even local DEL referees praised the level of both clubs.
"An outstanding game from both of them," said Gleich.
With Niklas Greil, Peiting had an accurate striker this time, whose two goals - paired with the defensive work of the whole team - now enable a real endgame after the endgame.
