MUNICH, GERMANY – Reviewing the results of the preseason you could not imagine what happened to the EHC Munich over the summer break.
Manager Winkler recently said, “It was not five to twelve, it was half past twelve.”
This was, when Red Bull came and assumed the primary and name sponsorship. (as reported by Pro Hockey News)
And on Sunday was the big moment.
Everyone in the Olympic-Icehall Munich was curious as to how many things would change and how big Red Bull had changed things to match their corporate identity and branding of the arena.
In short, the entire experience was for more professional than before.
This can be either good or bad. The short trailer before the players come on the ice is getting more neutral than it was in previous years. Nothing about Munich or the Olympic Park, a few animations which could work for every other team in the world appeared on the screens. As compensation, the lightshow is now bigger.
When the players came on the ice, the biggest change got obvious. The players’ sweaters have a small red stripe on it.
That color red and the fact that Red Bull is for a lot of Ultra fans the named evil caused, that the fan base split-up in the summer. A few popular people left supporting the club, the fan club who did the Choreos declined to support the new team and the individual who organized the away bus tours changed to support soccer.
The start in the season was very hard for the new team. Zero wins after the first five games looks very hard, but with a goal difference of just 2 goals, this loses were all very close. Also these loses were against Mannheim, Berlin and Hamburg who are teams who will play for the championship.
But all good things are six and so the EHC won its sixth game of the season. The game was a typical Munich game, because the home team was very defensive. This was also caused because of two five-minute game conduct penalties in the game. But not only the EHC Munich got through this, Klaus Kathan also scored the 2:1.
Martin Buchwieser scored the go-ahead goal, but Michael Endraß scored the equalizer 3 minutes after.
But Kathan’s goal was the decisive goal in this game. The guests from Straubing very offensive too harmless and so, the last goal from Mike Kompon for the 3:1 was insurance.
The last game during the famous Octoberfest was against the Krefeld Penguins. The Penguins took their former player Erhoff from the NHL and he scored two goals already. Against Munich he scored his third.
But it was just cosmetic as EHC Munich already led the match 3-0. Uli Maurer and Sören Sturm scored in the first period and Mike Kompon scored the third in the final frame.
As good as EHC is at home now, that is about as bad as they are away from home.
On Tuesday, they had to play against the Cologne Sharks, a team that added a number of quality players to the bench this summer. The EHC started well in the match, did a lot of forechecking in the first period. However on their powerplay, they gave up a shorthanded marker. With that goal, the Sharks were the dominating team and scored a goal per period.
The guests in this match, EHC, had the same problems as in earlier matches, they were not creating enough scoring chances in the offensive zone to be considered dangerous.
Contact Robin.Hilger@prohockeynews.com Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
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