Riefers likes the coach's plan

The defender is confident
:
Riefers likes the coach’s plan

–

Philp Riefers (No. 60), here at the Iserlohn guest performance in December 2020 with trash talk with Vinny Saponari, does not underestimate the level of the DEL2.
Photo: Samla Fotoagentur/samla.de

–
–

Krefeld The penguin defender is happy to be back in Krefeld with his family. He has already phoned the new head coach Leif Strömberg. Dominik Tiffels is aiming for a place in the top four in the main round.

The Krefeld Penguins are currently hard at work behind the scenes so that everything is ready for the “Resurgence” project and when the non-Krefeld players and the coaching team arrive at Westparkstraße in the coming week. Finally, the apartments have to be ready and the players’ equipment has to be prepared.

–

Team manager Andrej Saveljevs, father of multifunctional Sergey Saveljev, is currently taking care of the latter. He should not be envied for this job at the moment. Long-time supervisor Christian Mennigen left the penguins for Iserlohn after 18 years. A new supervisor is said to come from Sweden, but like the coaching team with head coach Leif Strömberg and assistant coach Pierre Bäcklin, he is not expected until next week. Then the medical tests are also on the program (see info).

–

The first training session on the ice is scheduled to take place in the first week of August. The exact date is not fixed yet. As part of the season opening on August 13th, fans of the Penguins can take a close look at the new team from 5 p.m. in the Yayla Arena in the friendly against Düsseldorfer EG. The ice surface of the arena is currently being prepared.

–

With Philip Riefers there will also be a returnee. The now 32-year-old from Krefeld is coming back to the penguins for the second time with the experience of a total of 672 games in the DEL (41 goals/74 assists). He made his DEL debut in Krefeld in 2008 before moving to the Kölner Haie in 2011 and then to Augsburg, Mannheim and Wolfsburg. Then in 2018 the first return to the penguins. In 2020 he went to Iserlohn for two more years. Now he’s happy to be back in Krefeld: “My family is here, we have children, I just feel super comfortable here. Since the second division was an option for me anyway, I didn’t think long when the offer came from Krefeld.”

–

The 192 centimeter tall and 90 kilogram player believes that the return to the DEL will be difficult. “We’re not expecting an easy season. Don’t underestimate the DEL2. That can be even more difficult for us than in the DEL because the expectations are higher. We’re being chased from the start.” He has already spoken to the new coach Leif Strömberg: “Leif informed me about his plan, I liked that a lot,” says Riefers, who watched a few DEL2 games last season and exchanged a lot with his buddies Philipp Kuhnekath and Mike Schmitz, who both play in Dresden.

–

His defensive colleague Dominik Tiffels, who is in his second season with the penguins, has already gained some experience in the DEL2. “The second division is not a bad league. There are a lot of good German players there. The speed is also high in the second division, but you have a little more time there to accept the puck and make a decision,” says the native of Cologne, who has made a total of 129 appearances in the second highest German division for Frankfurt, Heilbronn and Kassel, among others .

–

“It’s also played a bit rougher in the second division and you have to be prepared for the fact that it’s rarely played in stadiums with as much comfort as the Yayla Arena. There is still an original ice hockey atmosphere in many stadiums,” the 178 centimeter tall defender remembers his time in the DEL2. “It has to be our goal to play at the top right from the start and finish in the top four,” says Tiffels about the goal for the main round.

–

Leave a Comment Cancel reply