Ice hockey: Playoffs: Pinguins Bremerhaven write DEL history

In the sold-out arena at Ostbahnhof, the two previously dominant teams delivered the expected exchange of blows in the showdown in front of 14,200 spectators. Only if they had won in regular time would the Eisbären Berlin have pushed the Pinguins Bremerhaven, who are leading by two points, from the top of the table in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). The Berliners had been ahead 30 times since matchday 9, but lost the lead on matchday 50 with a 4-1 defeat in Straubing. Bremerhaven took advantage of the moment and even extended their lead to 107 points in the at times heated duel with a 2:1 (0:0, 2:0, 0:1) victory and celebrated a historic triumph as the first main round winner the club’s history.

If you ask around in Bremerhaven, the 58-year-old head coach Thomas Popiesch is unanimously praised. He is the “father of success” and has implemented a style of play over the years that is one of the most attractive in the league. The fact that he is moving to the DEL2 team Krefeld Pinguine at the end of the season does not harm this reputation. The East Berlin native with a dynamo past was in charge in Bremerhaven when the Fischtown Pinguins, playing in the DEL2, received a license for the DEL for the 2016/2017 season as the successor to the insolvent Hamburg Freezers. He always led the team to the playoffs, but never to the semifinals. Now in his eighth year as head coach, he is leading the team to their first championship title.

Popiesch’s vita is a German-German story of political explosiveness. He started in the SC Dynamo Berlin youth ice hockey team. But when, in 1982, at the age of 17, he wanted to flee across the border of the then Czechoslovakia into the Federal Republic of Germany, the attempt failed. He ended up in prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen and was sentenced to four years in prison. After his release from the Stasi prison in Bautzen, Popiesch continued to play ice hockey for the Spartakus Berlin leisure team – until 1989. He made his way to the Federal Republic of Germany again via the open Hungarian border – with success. After an eventful time as a player in nine western clubs, he embarked on a coaching career in 2006 and coached the East German clubs Lausitzer Füchse (until 2009) and Dresdner Eislöwen in the 2nd Bundesliga. Terminated in Dresden on New Year’s Eve 2015, he was back on the gang in January 2016 – and has shaped the era of success in Bremerhaven ever since.

As the first in the table, the Pinguins enjoy home advantage in all final games of the playoff rounds, which are played in a best-of-seven format, and if necessary also in the last game of the season for the championship title. The fact that Bremerhaven is also ahead in the direct duel with the record champions with 3-1 wins shows the increased strength of the team, which has the maturity to continue writing history. In the last ten years, the main round winners have always become champions. The 103rd German champion will be determined by April 30th at the latest.

Bremerhaven’s team manager Alfred Prey, the heart and soul of the club for 32 years, enthuses: “In the end, this season we have paid back the reward for continuity, perseverance, willingness, courage, will.” The fact that the team with the smallest budget of 4, 5 million euros among the 14 DEL clubs (Eisbären estimated 18 million) plays such a remarkable role in the elite class, he explains: “We rely on a moderate personnel policy and have to be cautious in the transfer market for financial reasons. We fish for players where others don’t, mainly in Eastern and Northern Europe. But that’s only half the story. In Bremerhaven, foreign professionals can get a German passport more quickly than anywhere else. Bremerhaven therefore has no problems with the league’s self-restriction that only nine foreigners per team are allowed to appear on the respective score sheet and only eleven are allowed in the squad.

Bremerhaven’s toughest rivals in the title fight are the Eisbären. The two can only meet again in the final. The Berliners have made an impressive comeback after the disastrous previous season in which they missed the playoffs. With 35 wins and an away dominance with 19 wins in 26 games as well as the most successful offensive in the league with 181 goals, they nurture hopes of their tenth championship title. Captain Kai Wissmann says confidently: “Of course we would have liked to finish the main round as league leaders. But we can be satisfied with the regular season. Next Sunday the playoffs start again from scratch. We are ready.« Berlin and Bremerhaven will meet one of the two winners of Mannheim (7th) – Nuremberg (10th) and Ingolstadt (9th) – Cologne (8th) determined in a maximum of three games until Wednesday.