Pre-Playoffs 2013 and perspectives for the next season

What a surprise: the last game turned out to be the crucial one of the 2012/2013 season; that time the rival turned out to be last season’s champion, Eisbären Berlin. This was a tough team for the Tigers to beat, as only a win could have resulted in earning rank ten, which was the prerequisite for pre-playoff games. Once again, my eldest son Tobias was part of this historic triumph, similar to the previous year, when we witnessed the incredible victory against Adler Mannheim resulting in direct participation in the playoffs.

This exciting game against the 2012 official champion was extremely exciting, but the Tigers performed sensationally well, keeping the best players away from their keeper and even scoring six times, while the defense only allowed two goals, which was pretty impressive. in this situation. If the Tigers had scored one more goal, Eisbären Berlin would not have even gained the right to play their first home game; they were lucky that way anyway.

Late in the afternoon, the crowd in the stadium was stunned again after making the playoffs earlier this season. Who should have been the team to beat that time? It soon became clear that the Augsburg Panthers were the opponent.

Eventually, I did well to forget about all those other previous games and start fresh; anyway, it was obvious that the Tigers had to play their best hockey.

First of all, the Tigers had to go to Augsburg; Almost 6,500 crazy spectators followed this game, a large Straubing fan community was in the midst of this crowd of passionate people. In the long run, after the second overtime that basically lasted about 20 minutes, the Tigers struck a lucky break and led 1:0 in the series.

Then I tried to get a valuable ticket to the next home game to be played two days later in the Pulverturm, when I was accompanied by a close friend who had already experienced many quite emotional games.

In fact, we were part of a great game for my beloved Tigers: they were cheered by almost 6,000 fans. Finally, we won 4:1 and reached the quarterfinals against the Cologne sharks, whose head coach Uwe Krupp was not very happy with this constellation.

Needless to say, I tried to get both tickets for the home games, which wasn’t easy anyway. Since Cologne won the first game quite easily with a 6:1 victory, the Tigers had to recover early. Their first home game was again a real highlight, because our players managed to beat the sharks 5:2. At that point, everything became possible again and you always believe strongly in your team anyway.

The next match in the huge Lanxess stadium was shown on TV and I saw it, there was no question.

The first 10 minutes turned out to be pretty even with both teams working on several good scoring opportunities, but then the fiasco happened: the sharks scored 3 goals in almost a minute, which was simply too much for the soul of the Tigers. It was incredible how something like this could have happened after those first positive impressions. However, the Tigers still did not recover from this scare and eventually lost 0:5.

You had to win the third game, that was pretty clear to the fans. I was still confident referring to our first game at home. Positively speaking, the Tigers took the lead with an excellent blue line after the first half. The crowd did their best tonight cheering throughout the game, which was amazing to watch.

Unfortunately, the Tigers didn’t pay much attention for a few minutes, which resulted in two quick goals for Cologne. In fact, this was very frustrating as we were unable to reap our efforts sooner. After the Sharks scored for the third time, there seemed to be a long way to go. This was true, which was a real shame because the Tigers put up an extremely good fight and did an excellent job despite the delay.

In the end, the Tigers lost 3:6, although they put a lot of emotion into the game in the last period by coming back from 1:5 to 3:5. You never know what could have happened with a quick fourth goal.

Regardless, the Cologne Sharks lead 3.1 in the series and the final countdown should take place within 48 hours. This last game was pretty even until the end of 3 periods; it ended 1:1 and overtime had to decide for the first time in the series. The Tigers surely had every opportunity to stay in the series and hold on to their chances. Could you continue to believe in this dream?

However, a bad and lousy change in the defense allowed Cologne to score the decisive goal and win 2:1, climbing to the final half.

However, the Tigers did a great job considering they had to deal with some major injuries to very important players during this series. There was no way to compensate against a team as top as Cologne, which finally reached the DEL final against Berlin.

I guess you already know who won the final? As in previous years, the Berlin Ice Bears were once again the best team in the league. But don’t forget that Berlin was very lucky to reach 4th position in the table when they lost their last game against the Tigers.

Still, I’ll always cross my fingers for any season to come, but I won’t keep expectations too high, because the Tigers are still underdogs but they’ve already accomplished a lot before.

Those wonderful miracles on ice should never be forgotten! There are definitely no strings attached for the future.

Outlook – Are you still dreaming?

How will the story of my beloved Straubing Tigers continue in the future?

Of course, you always look back at your previous success story. You can’t expect such a highlight every couple of years though, there’s no guarantee.

Basically, you can’t predict a similar performance on ice that the Tigers had experienced the year before.

However, you must not forget that this team from Lower Bavaria has definitely achieved a lot during the last 6 years by being a solid member of this prestigious league in Germany.

They have deserved respect and recognition from the rest of the teams. On the other hand, the public and critics always try to demand an even better performance year after year.

In that way, coaches and managers obviously suffer from increased pressure that has to be minimized in terms of long-term success and a stable environment.

Once again, it is time to search and choose the right players for the upcoming season that still needs to be planned and organized, even if the last game is not over yet.

The head coach basically takes it upon himself to reasonably delegate all required tasks to the assistant coach regarding goalkeepers; In addition, the sports manager has to focus on finding interesting foreign players to earn their money in the AHL (American Hockey League); above all, the European market will also be critically watched.

One of the favorite countries has always been the Swiss League, specifically Bern or Zurich. This is due to the predilection of our former coach Daniel Ratushny, who preferred two excellent players during the last two years. Those two elegant skaters have already paid off, as they went on to become the most valuable players for the Straubing Tigers team.

Anyway, let’s see what happens after Straubing’s sixth season. I strongly believe that you still need to be patient while waiting for the success that will come true sooner or later.

I will always keep my fingers crossed for the Straubing Tigers and look forward to many exciting and exciting games in the traditional stadium near the historic site of the Pulverturm; This is a famous tower from ancient times where ammunition was once stored to be alert if the enemy was near the city.

Let’s hope that the well-known ‘Pulverturm Roar’ will return soon.

Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to another hockey highlight that is yet to come in the future.

Since the icons and heroes of the 2005 championship, namely Billy Trew, Trevor Gallant and Calvin Elfring, no longer play for the Tigers, but will surely end their career at some point, there will definitely be a special farewell game in Straubing later or early.

It will undoubtedly be a very personal event with many emotions and memories. I strongly believe that the Straubing Tigers organization will try to find an interesting, worthwhile opponent to go there.

I am quite curious, when this match will take place and surely I will purchase a ticket for this historic game; this will be a must in the eyes of passionate Tigers fans.