Big bang during the summer break: After a reform of the league structure, which was initiated mainly from Landsberg, the Riverkings are promoted. In the 2020/21 season they will compete against well-known opponents in the ice hockey Oberliga Süd.
Among others, clubs like SB Rosenheim, EV Füssen, former champion Riessersee and the old derby rival from Memmingen are waiting in the Oberliga. However, a lot of preparatory work had to be done to ensure that the promotion at the "green table" could be made a success after the aborted season, said HCL President Frank Kurz. "With a main round so far with 60 games, there were numerous Tuesday matches. It is simply impossible to play them with our team, in which almost all players have a profession and go to work on a fulltime basis".
After numerous video conferences with the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB), the Bavarian Ice Sports Association (BEV) as well as club representatives of the Oberliga and the Bayernliga, a mode was agreed upon in the night before Wednesday, which, according to Kurz, "makes participation in the Oberliga attractive again for smaller locations where semi-professional competitive sport is offered": 40 matches in the main round will be followed - as before - by an interlocking round with the best Bayernliga clubs.
"This makes the risk for us manageable," the club president explained at a press conference. "This means that the Oberliga is no longer the sporting and financial adventure that we rightly would not have gotten involved in." His warmest thanks also go to the main sponsor of the Riverkings, the 3C-Carbon Group AG. "With 3C, we are having an absolutely reliable and loyal partner at our side for years, who is giving us great support even in these difficult and eventful times. Otherwise a decision for the Oberliga would not have been possible at all."
As things stand, the Oberliga is scheduled to resume play at the end of September.
After the early termination of the ice hockey season, Bayernligist HC Landsberg has nevertheless already made an important personnel decision: Fabio Carciola remains coach of the Riverkings.
"He is convinced of our way to increasingly promote and integrate our own young talents", says HCL President Frank Kurz, "you can already see that from the way he integrated numerous young players into the first team last season". Carciola and the HCL-presidium quickly agreed in view of the team's achievements, and together they decided to extend the contract for the next season.
However, due to the current situation, it is not yet possible to predict when this season will start and how the leagues will be composed.
With two victories, the Riverkings have already made participation in the play-offs to the ice hockey Oberliga almost a foregone conclusion one matchday before the end of the interlocking round. The somewhat surprising 4-2 win in Passau was followed two days later by a landslide victory over Klostersee.
With 10:2 they shot the guests from Grafing, who were completely indisposed that evening, out of the hall. With better exploitation of oppoertunities, the result could have been even higher.
Klostersee had even taken the lead through Wren after just under nine minutes. But then the Riverkings really got going, with the scorers initially coming in a brace: Reuter and the all-conquering Dennis Sturm turned the 0-1 into a 6-1 until halfway through the game, after which the other attackers were allowed to cheer as well, with Gäbelein reserving the right to make a double-digit final score five minutes before the end of the game.
As expected, things had been tighter in Passau. Mitchell and Charvat had given the Riverkings a 2-0 lead over the favourites, but the hosts could not be shaken off and in the final phase came close to 3-2. Krammer with his Empty-Net-Goal in the final minute secured the points for the HCL.
With this, the Landsbergers have regained sixth place, which is enough for direct play-off qualification. The possibility that they will be intercepted by Waldkraiburg on the final matchday is only a theoretical danger with a lead of three points and 23 goals. The quarter-finals will then be played in best-of-five mode, with the first play-off match taking place on 13 March.
Goals for Landsberg in Passau: Mitchell, Charvat, Kerber, Krammer
Goals for Landsberg against Klostersee: Sturm (4), Reuter (2), Reichenender, Machacek, Kerber, Gäbelein.
The 3C-Carbon Group AG is the exclusive main sponsor of the HC Landsberg.
Strong HC Landsberg loses to the hosts only in the penalty shootout.
A mostly convincing performance was rewarded with only one point at the end. For a long time it looked as if HCL would leave the ice as the winner. Jähnichen, Mitchell and Raß had given a 3:1 lead when ex-Landsberger Slavicek conceded a goal. Miesbach put pressure in the early stages, but the Landsbergers convinced with beautiful individual performances that led to the goals.
In the second period, however, the Carciola squad lost the touch completely at times with numerous disc losses. The home side took merciless advantage of this period of weakness and from their point of view even made the 1:3 a 4:3. When hopes already seemed to be swept away, Daniel Menge once again put himself in the limelight and equalized to 4:4.
Despite a powerplay in overtime, the Riverkings did not score any more, so that both teams had to shoot for a penalty. There Dennis Sturm on the Landsberg side conjured up two spectacular successful attempts. However, he failed in his third attempt, his opponent Dusan Frosch scored in return, so that two points went to Miesbach and the Landsbergers brought home a point.
Goals for Landsberg in Miesbach: Jähnichen, Mitchell, Raß, Menge.
The 3C-Carbon Group AG is the exclusive main sponsor of HC Landsberg.
Against the undefeated leader from Passau, HC Landsberg could not reward themselves for a respectable performance and lost in the final seconds. Two days later they took indemnity for this in the canting victory in Grafing against EHC Klostersee.
With a lot of effort, self-sacrificing duel behaviour and good playful solutions, also due to the U20 players used, the Riverkings demanded everything from the Passau Black Hawks (four wins from four games in the intermediate round) in the home game in front of almost 1000 spectators. Reuter and Sturm gave the hosts a 2-0 lead with two beautifully-played goals. The visitors from Lower Bavaria used two overtime games to equalise, but once again Sturm with a piece of skill scored immediately to make it 3-2. After Passau's goal for 3-3, everything looked to be already after the first point loss of the Blackhawks and extra time, when the puck fell in front of Passau's former DEL player Gawlik who netted 2.8 seconds before the end to the happy winner for the visitors.
The Riverkings then showed in Grafing that they were not to be thrown back by this bitter defeat. In the away game against EHC Klostersee, there was no doubt right from the start as to who would take the points that evening and they put the hosts under a lot of pressure. At first this was only countable in the 1-0 by Adriano Carciola, but with 5 goals between the 30th and 40th minute they showed impressively the scorer qualities. All in all, 7 different Landsberg players entered the scorer list in the clear 8:2 victory.
Goals for Landsberg against Passau: Sturm (2), Reuter
Goals for Landsberg in Grafing: A. Carciola (2), Reicheneder, Rass, Sturm, Charvat, Jänichen, Krammer.
The 3C-Carbon Group AG is the exclusive main sponsor of the HC Landsberg Riverkings.
