MUNICH – GERMANY: After just 2 weeks of training together, the ice is calling: Its gonna be hot out there again this season. The club followed the invitation of the HC Neumarkt from southern tirol (Italy) for the yearly Dolomiti-Cup. Beside the cup, the new ice rink in Neumarkt was opened. Together with Munich, there were other top class teams invited; from Austria, the Klagenfurter AC, record holding champions of the Austrian League and vice champion of last years EBEL-season. The HC Pustertal from Italy, who won the league cup in Italy last year. And the Italian national team, who won the last B-World Cup and get promoted to the A-Group for the next world cup in Sweden and Finland.
The first game of the 3 day tournament was played in Pustertal. The home team played against the Klagenfurter AC. Pustertal dominated the game, but was not able to score any goals because the Austrian goalie Andy Chiodo was in all the right places. Klagenfurt did it better and took its chances for a 2:0 lead. Late in the game Pustertal scored its goal, but it was too late. The favorite KAC won the game with a clear 4:1 scoreline.
In the second semi final, EHC Munich played its first pre-season game against the Italian national team. The Italian team was filled up with a few second league players, the Munich team had, almost traditional after the first weeks in training, a few injured players. National goalkeeper Jochen Reimer and the Swedish new defenseman Jens Olsson had injured knees, the attackers Bryan Addams (Nickname B.A.) and David Wrigley had to miss the first game because of lighter injuries.
The Italian anthem was only just over when the first goal came, After just 29 seconds Uli Maurer was successful after a nice cross pass from Eric Schneider. But this was not the last time that Maurer could cheer about a goal for himself. After 14 minutes he scored again, this time it was a shorthanded goal after a pass from David Cespiva. With this, the game went to the first break with a 2:0 lead for Munich. The Italian national team started the second period more engaged and got a goal from Edoardo Calletti. For the last 10 Minutes in the second period, Jochen Reimer was interviewed by the EHC-fan radio (every game of the EHC Munich is broadcast live and free in the internet at www.1000Mikes.com ). Reimer wasn’t almost there when Maurer scored again. Again after an assist from Eric Schneider. And 3 minutes later, the 150 fans from Munich could celebrate again. The shot from Klaus Kathan was deflected and unreachable for the Italian goal keeper Thomas Tragust. In the 34th minute, Kathan thanked Jason Ulmer for his assist with a pass in front of the goal and Ulmer accepted the gift. Two minutes before the horn, the Italians came in front of the Munich goal where Sebastian Elwing had a relaxed time. But the shot from Steffano Marchetti hit the mask and deflected into the slot where Anton Bernard scored to make it 2:5. In the last period, the game got more and more abrasive, especially Tommaso Traversa from Italy, who stepped into the spotlight. He checked Martin Schymainski into the boards and Schymainski hat to quit the game with an injured back. This and a lot of other fouls from the player from Torino caused a lot of penalties against him. And with these penalties his team has to suffer the consequences. Maurer scored a 4th time and the 7:2 final score did youngster Dennis Schütt with a worth seeing wrist shot. The Munich coaches Pat Cortina (former Italian national coach) and Maurizio Mansi (former player in the Italian league) could be really delighted with the first game in the season and especially with Uli Maurer who fit perfect on the first line.
With this result, the game for the cup was between Munich and Klagenfurt, the third place game was between the Italian national team and HC Pustertal. To these games, all teams had the same conditions. The cooling system of the hall had a break down during the night, so the ice was more like a swimming pool than an ice rink. Also during the day the temperatures hit around 35 °C, which caused that a lot of guests from the open air pool to come into the ice hall with swimming clothes and flip-flops. Ice hockey with swimming shorts and half naked, that’s an impressive view!
The game for the 3rd place is short to tell. Pustertal started like rockets and lead until the last period with a 4:1 score. But in the last break there was a call for Italian honor and in the last minute of the game, they drew level. But Pustertal won the penalty shootout to take the game 5:4.
After the final was the official opening of the new ice hall, with this in mind there were free drinks and sausages and so the hall was filled with about 800 people, including about 200 fans from Munich. And this very loud crowd had not to wait long for the first goal of the final. George Kink shot after just 2 Minutes to make it 1:0 after a nice pass from Brandon Dietrich. And Dietrich was also involved in the second, a goal from Martin Schymainski. He scored the in the 11th minute, total free in the slot to shoot the puck into the net. 4 Minutes later, Noah Clarke raised the lead to 3:0. But then, two Munich players had to go into the box and Klagenfurt took the chance. Kirk Furey and John Lammers shortened the game to 3:2. In the second period nothing happened, except for a few rounds of free ice skating of both to clear the fog in the hall! But the last 20 minutes would be really exciting. First, Bryan Addams scored on the power play for 4:2, and expected final score in the 56th minute. But the KAC fought and scored again in the 58th minute, again during a power play. The Austrians switched the goalie for the 6th player and Raphael Herburger scored to make it 5:4, but EHC survived till the end and won the Dolomiti-Cup 2011!
The other pre-season-games had following results:
10.09.2011 EHC München – Augsburger Panther 3 – 0
04.09.2011 KHL Medvescak Zagreb – EHC München 1 – 3
03.09.2011 HC Vitkovice Steel – EHC München 2 – 1
02.09.2011 EV Zug – EHC München 5 – 3
28.08.2011 EHC München – Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers 2 – 1
24.08.2011 EHC Black Wings Linz – EHC München 4 – 1
The new DEL-season starts the EHC Munich away against the Krefeld Penguins. The first home game is against the Hannover Scorpions, champions of the 2009 season.
Robin.Hilger@prohockeynews.com
