MUNICH, GERMANY – What a night! With what was all said before this game.
‘Ice hockey in Munich is dead.’
There is just soccer in this city. And if there should be space for another kind of sport, its basketball, also run by the FC Bayern Munich.
How could a just 13-year-old ice hockey club with an attendance average of 3000 fill the Olympia-Hall?
But already 1 week before the match, the homepage of the EHC Munich showed the banner “SOLD OUT!”
And the 11,000 fans, from this about 2000 from the visitors, were not only a record for EHC Munich, they were also a record attendance of all Bavarian teams in the DEL of all time! But the game will not linger in memories only because of records but will remain in the mind of all 11,000 fans but also because the EHC Munich routed the Augsburger Panthers.
From the beginning it was clear that the EHC team wanted to make the first two games in the season forgotten. They pushed from the opening face-off towards the goal of Tyler Weiman. Augsburg had their first shot on goal after five minutes before this they were pushed into their own zone.
But these shots were denied by Sebastian Elwing, the backup goalie behind national goalkeeper Jochen Reimer who is still injured. But the last 3 of 4 matches with Elwing were won, so coach Pat Cortina had no problem with calling Elwing between the posts.
In the 12th minute, the puck was finally put behind Weiman. But EHC forward Martin Buchwieser pushed the puck with his hand over the line, so after reviewing the video, the referee denied the goal. Munich started the second period with a power play and it took just 35 seconds when Stephane Julien shot from the blue line and the puck hit the inner post and from there into the net.
From there the atmosphere was boiling. And the visitors were impressed by the Munich fans. Just two minutes after the lead, Uli Maurer carried the puck into the offensive zone on a short-handed play and turned on the speed and overran Mario Trabucco and shot the puck from the short post over the shoulder of Weiman into the goal from about half a meter.
From then on, the Olympic-Hall was a blue-white party zone. And there were more to celebrate in the second. Jason Ulmer and Martin Schymainski finished a two-on-one counter attack and the just 1.68 Meter tall Schymainski scored for a 3-0 lead. These goals showed their impact at the beginning of the third period. Augsburg picked up an early penalty for delay of game. Jeffrey Szwez did not long to sit on the bench, because just 15 seconds after the face off, David Wrigley netted the goal for the 4-0.
And because of the unstoppable hunger for goals, Schymainski picked up his second of the evening in the 43th minute of the game.
From this point on, the only job was to ensure Elwing picked up his first shutout of the season.
The fans were already celebrating. They started the La-Ola and the popular jumping. In Munich, it’s typical, that when it’s sure that the game is won, the first row of the stand curve starts to jump, then the second and so on to the last, the 14th. In Olympic-Hall are 23 rows. So the fans were busy with jumping till two minutes before the end, when they started to bring the whole stadium, except of the away fans of course, to jump with the curve.
After the game the fans cheered their team for 15 minutes, let them do the HUMBA and the crawler and goalie Sebastian Elwing had to dance.
The next games are away games in Hamburg and Straubing until the first home game in the new year is against Wolfsburg, who played at the Sprengler Cup this week and get into the half final. With this article, Robin Hilger wishes you a very nice new year, and a perfect 2012!
Contact Robin.Hilger@prohockeynews.com
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