“I’m so all”
Ingolstadt ensures high tension in the DEL title fight
04/18/2023 10:44 p.m
After a self-sacrificing struggle, ERC Ingolstadt clinched its first victory in the final series for the championship in the German Ice Hockey League. The EHC Red Bull Munich initially looks like the winner again – and Ingolstadt is struggling with goalkeeper problems.
Despite goalkeeper concerns, ERC Ingolstadt made the title fight in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) exciting again. In the third play-off final, the runners-up in the main round won 4-3 (2-2, 0-1, 2-0) against Bavarian rivals Red Bull Munich – with 21-year-old Jonas Stettmer, goalie number three, between the posts .
“I’m so exhausted, I need a day or two before I can realize that,” said the goalkeeper at MagentaSport, “It wasn’t optimal in the first third, the nervousness was still there, but then it went better. I am just happy.” The Schanzer thus reduced the best-of-seven series to 1:2 and kept their chance for the second championship title after 2014. In the home game on Friday (7.30 p.m. / MagentaSport) the team of coach Mark French could equalize with another success .
Wojciech Stachowiak (6th/55th), Frederik Storm (16th) and Tye McGinn (56th) scored for the Ingolstadt team in front of 5728 spectators. The goals for Munich from record coach Don Jackson, who had won the silver cup three times in a row from 2016 to 2018, scored Ben Smith (10th), Justin Schütz (20th) and Patrick Hager (38th).
Again third goalkeeper for Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt had to rely on his third goalkeeper again. In addition to the injured Michael Garteig, the substitute goalie Kevin Reich, who was so strong in the semi-finals, was also out with a middle ear infection. The 21-year-old Stettmer, who has mainly played between the posts at the second division team Ravensburg Towerstars this season, was substituted on for the third time in a DEL game in the 7-1 defeat on Sunday. Before his first assignment from the start, goalkeeping coach Varian Kirst told him: “Go out and play! He’s had a good season in the DEL2, he should be ready.” After 141 seconds, Stettmer had just saved a shot – four goals had already been scored two days earlier at this point.
“The amount of a defeat doesn’t give a damn in the play-offs,” emphasized ERC striker Daniel Pietta, referring to the highest home defeat in a DEL final game. Stachowiak’s early opening goal after successful forechecking underlined that Ingolstadt was far from giving up. Stettmer had no chance at 1-1 when Smith converted the rebound after a deflected shot. The Ingolstadt team only needed ten seconds in the first power play to end their black series: Storm scored the first overtime goal in six games. But 29 seconds before the end of the period, Schütz equalized with his ice skate – in accordance with the rules without a kicking movement, as the referees determined from the video evidence.
When Hager went it alone, Stettmer initially prevented Munich’s first lead with a great reflex. Then he was unlucky when his defender Mat Bodie deflected a cross from the Munich captain into his own goal. On the other side, Pietta first hit the crossbar in the final third, then the game tipped over within 42 seconds.