ESVK wins against Blue Devils Weiden

On Friday evening, ESV Kaufbeuren will play its first matchday in the DEL2 against the Blue Devils Weiden. ESVK coach Daniel Jun had to do without Rihards Babulis and Alex Thiel. New signing Colby McAuley is also not yet available. ESVK won the party 4-1 in front of 2,161 spectators, including many Joker fans.

On Sunday at 6:30 p.m. the Jokers will play their home opener in the Energie Schwaben Arena against the reigning champions Eisbären Regensburg. Tickets are still available in the online ticket shop (click) and at the box office 90 minutes before the start of the game.

Start of the season in the minority

The season began for the Jokers with a shorthanded game. Samir Kharboutli had to go to the penalty box for two minutes after just a few seconds. The Kaufbeuren team was able to defend the promoted team’s power play well, although the home team also had one or two good shots on goal. The first big chance then belonged to the ESVK in the third minute of the game. Sami Blomqvist set up a two-on-one counterattack to Max Oswald, who failed to score in front of goalkeeper Marco Wölfl. Four minutes later, however, the Blue Devils goalkeeper had to accept the first goal scored by Weiden in the DEL2. The Jokers’ line around Sami Blomqvist countered again and the German-Finn was able to push the puck over the line to make it 0-1 after a defender had initially managed to knock it out of his path. Both teams then had one or two chances to score, but it was never really dangerous for the two goalkeepers. After the Blue Devils started to attack more and more around the 12th minute and became more and more dangerous in front of Daniel Fießinger, the Kaufbeuren team had to deal with some problems in their passing game. Three minutes later, this would come back to haunt them. Tommy Muck was able to shoot a shot from the blue line past “friend and foe” to make it 1:1 and was thus able to celebrate being the Blue Devils’ first DEL2 goal scorer. The ESVK then had its first power play in the 16th minute. The only and best chance was missed by Nolan Yaremko, who was back to full strength shortly before the Weiden team, but failed. Nothing more happened in the last minutes of the first period and the game went into the first break with the score at 1:1.

Unexciting second section

The second period was not very rich in highlights. Former Joker Fabian Voit had the first big chance for the Blue Devils in the 26th minute. After winning the puck, he was able to run to Daniel Fießinger from the outside, but narrowly missed the shot. A penalty against Dieter Orendorz just a minute later gave the Blue Devils a few good chances on the power play, but they were unable to score. The Jokers also had their second power play in the 31st minute, but coach Daniel Jun’s team unfortunately failed to create any scoring opportunities. Weiden was the more active team in the next few minutes and repeatedly came dangerously close to Daniel Fießinger’s goal. Two minutes before the half-time whistle, however, the Allgäu team struck. It was Dani Bindels who was able to finish off a Kaufbeuren player with a hard and well-placed wrist shot into the right corner of the goal to make it 1:2. The score then went into the second half with this score.

Winning goal in the last third

The promoted team had their first big chance right at the start of the third with a direct shot from Tommy Muck, which Daniel Fießinger was able to parry. It continued like this, with Weiden repeatedly getting into the ESVK zone and Daniel Fießinger having to be wide awake to prevent another goal being scored against. The Kaufbeuren goalkeeper made strong saves against Fabian Voit and Tomas Rubes, among others. In the 50th minute, the Jokers missed a great chance to score a third goal with a counterattack via Samir Kharboutli and Premysl Svoboda. With this chance, however, the Wertach team grew stronger and managed to hold their own in the Weiden third more and more. In the 55th minute, Jakob Weber scored the goal to make it 1:3 with a hidden shot. Quirin Bader blocked Weiden goalkeeper Marco Wölfl’s view and thus played a large part in the Kaufbeuren defender’s goal. The home team then threw everything forward once again. After a good opportunity from Tomas Rubes, which Daniel Fießinger was able to defuse, coach Sebastian Buchwieser also took a timeout. As a result, the Blue Devils played without a goalkeeper and thus with six field players against five. Samir Kharboutli took advantage of this in the 58th minute to score his first goal of the season. After Premysl Svoboda had previously won the puck and held on to it, he was able to pass to his teammates and they scored the final score of 1:4 in the empty Weiden goal.