The champion polar bears manage to start with a weekend of exclamation marks

The Regensburg Ice Bears started the second ice hockey league with two wins. The DEL-2 champions made a weekend of exclamation marks perfect with a 3-0 (0-0, 0-0, 3-0) home win after the 3-2 penalty against Landshut and will now face the Selber Wölfe for their next home game on Friday (8 p.m.).

The changes in the Eisbären squad affected the goal and the third block. Jonas Neffin replaced Eetu Laurikainen between the posts. In defense, in which Andre Bühler played his 250th game against Landshut on Friday, Korbinian Schütz was in the team instead of Sandro Mayr for the duel with brother Simon on the Kaufbeuren side.

Giesl for team senior Divis

And in the third attack, the injured team senior Richard Divis made way for youngster Matej Giesl alongside Marvin Schmid and Constantin Ontl. Kaufbeuren was still missing the newly signed quota player Colby McAuley, who replaced Cole Sanford after his contract was terminated.

It developed into a match in which both sides placed a lot of emphasis on defence and although there were certainly chances on both sides, the maximum risk was not taken offensively and big chances were in short supply here and there in the first 20 minutes.

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In the second period, the drive towards the goal became stronger, even if the result remained the same. Joey Lewis was close, but narrowly missed the goal (27th minute). After 28:13 minutes, Christoph Schmidt hit the ice with his head after a duel and had to be replaced from then on. Premysl Svoboda (29:34) and Samir Kharboutli (30:17) missed the next opportunities for Kaufbeuren.

After 33:33 minutes, the puck was in the Regensburg goal after Nolan Yaremko’s follow-up shot, but the referee had already called an offside and blown the whistle. ESV goalkeeper Daniel Fießinger, an ex-Regensburg player, distinguished himself against David Morley (34:29). After 37:50 minutes, the first Jonas Neffin saved against Leon Sivic and in return Fießinger saved against Corey Trivino. Fabian Koziol’s shot on the post documented Kaufbeuren’s advantage in chances, which was also reflected in the statistics with 31:13 shots on goal.

Leading goal against former club

Max Oswald also narrowly missed the shot in the final section (45th minute). On the other hand, former Kaufbeuren player Marvin Schmid was the quickest to react in front of the hosts’ goal a good one and a half minutes later and gave Regensburg a 1-0 lead with 13:03 minutes to go.

Olle Liss was just as quick-thinking after 51:17 minutes: His first attempt was stopped by Fießinger, but he was the quickest to find the puck on the rebound and scored to make it 2-0. Captain Nikola Gajovsky (54th minute) and Corey Trivino (58th minute/post) even had the chance to make it 3-0 (54th minute).

As was the case against Landshut, the Eisbären again had the advantage in the third period and brought the overall score into positive territory with their tenth victory in the 19th duel in the club’s history with Kaufbeuren. Schmid finally put the final goal into the empty net to make it 3-0.

Statistics: Kaufbeuren – Regensburg 0:3 (0:0, 0:0, 0:3)ESV Kaufbeuren: Fießinger – Jakob Weber, Simon Schütz; Sten Fischer, Orendorz; Watson, Koziol; Nivosi – Oswald, Laaksonen, Blomqvist; Svoboda, Lewis, Kharboutli; Bindels, Yaremko, Bader; Feigl, Sivic, Jonas Fischer

Polar Bears Regensburg: Neffin – Giles, Bühler; Jakob Weber, Tippmann; Korbinian Schütz, Demetz ; Köttstorfer – Gajovsky, Moser, Slezak; Liss, Trivino, Morley; Ontl, Schmid, Giesl; Schmidt, Grimm, Angaran

Goals: 0:1 (46:57) Schmid (Giesl-Ontl), 0:2 (51:17) Liss (Trivino-Morley), 0:3 (58:57) Schmid (Giesl at 5-6 into the empty goal)

Referee: Marcus Brill/Thomas Kralnik. – View: 2699. – Penalty minutes: Kaufbeuren 2 – Regensburg 4