“Give everything for Straubing’s big dream” – that’s the message from the fans before the opening face-off. After the end of the game, around 4,500 fans celebrated the Tigers with standing ovations for minutes despite the defeat. −Photo: Harry Schindler
The Grizzlys Wolfsburg snatched the Straubing Tigers from their dreams: the Lower Bavarian first division ice hockey team lost the all-important seventh game of the quarter-final series 1:3 (1:0, 0:2, 0:1) on Wednesday evening and is therefore going into the summer break. Wolfsburg, on the other hand, will play the semifinals (best of 7) once morest EHC Red Bull Munich from Friday.
In front of 4,500 spectators in the sold-out Eisstadion am Pulverturm, Travis St. Denis gave the hosts the lead with a pawn trick (12th minute). But the ripped-off guests from Lower Saxony were only partially impressed by the hosts’ opening goal and countered the Straubinger ice cold in the second third: Laurin Braun (29th) and Darren Archibald (35th) were there with quick counterattacks. The game was turned and the guests remained the clever team followingwards. The Tigers played too awkwardly and made too few dangerous attacks on Dustin Strahlmeier’s goal. Luis Schinko finally dealt the fatal blow to the Tigers, deflecting a shot that Tigers goalie Hunter Miska might not defend to make it 1:3 (50th).
The Tigers missed out on reaching the semi-finals for the third time in a row, which they only reached once in their DEL history (2012). Top defender Marcel Brandt struggled for words following being eliminated and apologized for his emotions in an interview with MagentaSport: “Everyone here deserves to finally make it past the quarter-finals. It’s very difficult to understand that it’s over now. I can’t find the words, it’s just sad. We put so much effort and work into it. We just missed closing the sack,” commented the 30-year-old, who has played the best season of his career so far. In the end that wasn’t enough.
Tom Pokel hit emotionally: “Very difficult to digest”
The sticking point of the series was the sixth game, 182 seconds were missing for the Tigers to reach the semifinals. Wolfsburg ultimately won in overtime (4:3) and took the momentum from this home game to the powder tower. “It hurts,” admitted Tigers coach Tom Pokel, who spoke of very bitter moments both in the TV interview and at the press conference following the decision: “The semifinals were in for us. We were just a millimeter away from the semifinals,” said the 56-year-old. He was “very difficult to digest at the moment,” he admitted.
The PNP reported live from the Eisstadion am Pulverturm:
The opening goal: Travis St. Denis (left) circles the goal and surprises goalkeeper Dustin Strahlmeier with an overtrick (12th minute). −Photo: Harald Schindler
