Advancement – Steelers crown themselves masters

(bf / hna). It was the game of games in the DEL 2 playoffs. In the “Best-of-Five” series between the Kassel Huskies and the Bietigheim Steelers, the fifth game came to a showdown on Saturday. The championship and the athletic promotion to the DEL were finally secured by the Swabians, who were not only able to turn the deficit in the last match, but also the 0:

2 mortgage that they had built up after two lots. It was 5-2 in the end for the Steelers.

When the seventh minute ran, Kassel’s Stephan Tramm received a penalty for striking a stick – and the Ellentaler took advantage of the power play with Norman Hauner’s goal (8th). It was still exciting and both teams did not give each other anything. After there were too many players on the ice with the guests, the sled dogs played with one more man and they were able to use the majority game to compensate. The goal scorer to make it 1-1 was Tramm (15th).

In the second period there were chances on both sides, Vincent Saponari made it 2-1 for Kassel (27th). In the third section, the Steelers use a majority to equalize Hauner (46th). Shortly afterwards, it was Evan Jasper (49th) who put the guests in the front for the first time in the evening – 3-2. Again Hauner extended the lead (55th). Tim Schüle hit the empty net (59th) and thus set the end point. Then the Steelers party started.

The Huskies, meanwhile, showed too little of what they had distinguished in the main round in the decisive final game. The self-image with which the North Hessians marched through long stretches of the main round was often missing in the playoffs. Instead, the pressure to really win now seemed to rise, and the high expectations that most players would rather paralyze rather than inspire them. Instead, the people of Bietigheim showed what self-confidence looks like.

The weakness in the final third was noticeable: The huskies had actually worked out a good starting position: In all five finals they went into the final third with a lead – as was the case in the last three games. Twice with 2: 1, once with 4: 3 – but in the end they gave this advantage back three times.

The Steelers were missing three top performers. But led by the towering Evan Jasper and Norman Hauner, they made the failures forgotten. In the case of the huskies, however, some who had spun on the ice during the famous main round fell short of their possibilities. It feels like only Vinny Saponari played in the playoffs at a higher level than in the main round, especially in the final. People like Jasper, Hauner, Alexander Preibisch or Benjamin Zientek, who created danger in front of Jerry Kuhn’s goal with almost every attack, were looked for in vain among the huskies. In direct comparison with the Steelers, that was not enough.

Michael Christ is actually not someone who has to struggle for words. But even two days after the burst dream of promotion, the huskies striker was still pretty speechless. “Of course we all imagined it differently. It’s not nice to lose like this. It’s 2-2 in the series, you are the best team, you play at home, you can actually go into such a decisive game stronger than before. But at the end of the day Bietigheim was just better. Because we just didn’t manage to win in the last three encounters, «said Christ.

No excuses with the huskies

Derek Dinger commented similarly: “I’m still pretty empty. It’s been a long season, a lot has happened, and we don’t have the degree we envisioned. What was it? Finding excuses is not justified. The pressure was of course high, it wasn’t the lack of strength, we worked a lot. “

At the Kassel Huskies, the final talks with the players are now underway, and personnel decisions are expected in the next few days. It is already certain that Philippe Cornet will leave the club and return to HPK Hämeenlinna. The Finnish club announced this over the weekend. Cornet played there from 2018 to 2020.

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