German League Round #16

Plot thickens – Round#16 German League

With just 2 rounds ( plus one game) left in the regular season, the mid-table is a big exciting mess. Who will make it to the top6 and who will be left to battle it out in the relegation matches is still anyone’s guess.

Above you can see the latest results and the table after the round last weekend has been calculated.

Remember the cut-off point is the 6th position in the league, be that or higher and you live to fight another day on your quest to title, end lower and you will be fighting against falling out of the league. This translates on the field to exciting games and great emotions, yet not to everyone’s liking at all times.

So let us get to the individual games. As you can see 3 out of the 5 games played over the weekend, went to overtime. Since theoretically all teams between DJK Holzbüttgen to Kaufering can still end up on either side of the line…no surprise a lot of the games are going to go on the wire.

Red Devils Wernigerode – VfL Red Hocks Kaufering 5:4 (ot)

Kill or be killed, both teams equal on points prior to the game made this game a nail-biter before it had even started. 230 spectators had arrived to the Stadtfeldhalle in Wernigerode to witness the on-form Kaufering slowly edging ahead of similarily improved Wernigerode. They were however never really able to pull a decisive lead and Wernigerode was always able to catch up. This continued throughout the game until at 18.29 point in the last period Wernigerode managed to take the lead in the game for the first time. With only 1.5 minutes to play they might have thought they got away with it…only to be disappointed some 13 seconds later as Maximilian Falkenberger drew the game for Kaufering again. The overtime did not get a chance really to start well when it was the Swede Andersson for Wernigerode that scored the overtime-winner. 2 points to Wernigerode and 1 for Kaufering…both still in the race for the 5th and 6th position.

SSF Dragons Bonn – ETV Piranhhas Hamburg 7:6

Dragons have been lately slipping in the tables and were deperate to turn the tables on Hamburg currently holding the coveted 6th place. Piranhhas themselves have managed to turn the tide themselves with not only scoring a narrow victory over Berlin, but trouncing Chemnitz. The game progressed slowly but surely in favor of the Bonn-team seeing them take already 7-4 lead by middle-point of the last period. Despite the last surge by the visiting Piranhhas, who managed to claw their way back in to contention with 2 goals, it was not enough. The points stayed in Bonn making the table all the more interesting.

UHC Sparkasse Weißenfels – MFBC Leipzig 6:6 (ot)

Top 2 teams in the league performing in front of a top-audience. A whopping 425 people in the audience were treated to an evenly matched teams battling it out. Not even 70 minutes of action were able to separate the two in the end. League-wise this match had only relevance for Leipzig as theoretically they could still lose their 2nd place be forced to play already in the first round of playoffs…but all in all, both teams could concentrate on staying healthy and work on stuff perhaps to be used in the upcoming Cup-Finals in only 3 weeks time.

DJK Holzbüttgen – Berlin Rockets 5:4 (ot)

Holzbüttgen has been struggling as of late with scoring as they have been outshooting their opponents with factor of 2 or even 3 at times, but just not being rewarded for it. Berlin themselves have been struggling with a couple of more things. However the last results have not been that bad since they’ve only lost narrowly most of their recent matches…the reality remains that it has been nearly 3 months since they last won a game. This game was not much different…DJK shooting and not capitalizing and Berlin keeping it close but never really taking charge of the game. With a low-scoring game DJK not used to, it was always destined for an overtime…there it was the young National Team player Nils Hofferbert that allowed the home-team and the 200 spectators to let out a sigh of relief. Having lost the last 4 games, the 2 points awarded for an overtime win were certainly a welcome sight. Allowing them to keep the gap to the 6th place at 5points with 3 games at hand (the Bonn game was rescheduled due to storm) whereas most of the opponents have only 2.

TV Schriesheim – Floor Fighters Chemnitz 5:4

If Chemnitz has had an impressive run this year, so has Schriesheim holding the 4th place in the league they are trying to position themselves nicely for the upcoming playoffs. As they can no longer fall out of play-offs, it is more about being in the 3rd or 4th place as they will win the home-advantage (as far as I remember correctly) for the first round. The same could be said about Chemnitz although they do have a small window of opportunity to end up second and thus avoiding the entire 1st round (the top 2 come in only in the second round).

In the game it was the hometeam that set the tone pretty much in the first period as they took a decisive 4-1 lead and simply never gave it up again. Chemnitz was able to mount a small come-back but in the end it was not enough and the points remained with the hosts.

So that was it for that round….2 and a bit to go….here is an overview on what is to come:

So plenty of action to come still and all eyes will be fixated on the mid-table battle. Weißenfels can already prepare for the playoffs and cup and Berlin can already concentrate on the play-downs….but almost everything else in between is still up for grabs.

Hope to see you in the halls…come and say hi….

Cheers,

Kimmo