GEC Ritter Nordhorn - Romijnder Devils Nijmegen Article

09.03.2012: GEC Ritter Nordhorn - Romijnder Devils Nijmegen 12:4

Tryout

Ice Rink, Nordhorn (Germany)

(Pentax K-5 with Tamron SP AF 17-50mm 2.8 XR Di II LD Asp IF and Sigma AF 50-150mm 2.8 EX DC APO HSM II)

The game was announced quite short-termed and so "only" 513 fans went to the Nordhorn Ice Rink. For the Ritter it should be the first test against an equal or even better opponent because no one else than the present champion of the Dutch 2nd division, the Romijnders Devils from Nijmegen were guest.
These showed directly from the beginning that they went here to win the game because after only 180 seconds goalie Maik Holzke already had to get the puck out of the goal and the Devils led by 1:0 by Mike Vedder. But the GEC Ritter were not put up with that and directly answered accordingly: Michael Sotor, Marvin Raslan and Lukas Hausmanninger who played an astonishing game this evening turned the game during 4 minutes and so the result was 3:1. Honda Zelenka was able to bring the guests close at the 11. minute before the Hausmanninger show continued. Finally at the end of the first period it was 6:2 for the Ritter which was not undeserved. Were the Dutch at the beginning keeping up with the Ritter they unnecessarily brought themselves into troubles via too many penalties.
Also during the second period not much changed to this. It were again the Dutch that made the first goal but directly in return the Ritter took the wind out of the Devils sails and increased their lead safely to 9:3 at the end of this period. The game stayed abrasive and was shaped by many penalties mainly on Dutch side. After the break icehockey was mainly a minor matter. It were the Ritter that increased their lead by wonderful goals of Raslan and Hausmanninger to 11:3 but the game was more and more getting rough and ugly. It did not have to do much with ice hockey in the end and the climax was reached during a punchfest after which on both sides three players got a 5 + game misconduct. The referee and his two linesmen had a lot to do until the game was over and the penalty bench did not get cold on both sides until the game was over after 60 minutes with the result 12:4 ending with shake hands. To put the game into figures: 166 penalty minutes and the GEC Ritter at least "only" 103.
What remains after this game? A real opponent to the Ritter I have not yet seen at Nordhorn. During the only defeat against Salzgitter they practically bet themselves because the opponent was not better than they were. For the Devils from Nijmegen you could tell the same as for mainly all Dutch icehockey teams: skating is perfect but technique with the hockey stick still heavily improvable. Also the physical game is not their's. The niveau has increased a bit compared to 10 years ago but still there is quite a significant difference in level compared to the German Regionalliga (whereas the Regionalliga Nord in my opinion is the weakest in Germany). Very poor was to see at all three Dutch teams that after a significant deficit they only are going for penalties and provoking the opponent ending up often in punchfests. With this I need to make a blame on the players of the Ritter that they are in these situations not cool enough and unnecessarily enter these situations. They absolutely need get a grip on that fastly. Otherwise it was a nice but unimportant test game where two new players got the chance to show their skills. But with that course of the game that was hardly possible. The main focus clearly has now to be on the last division games where only two victories are needed to be safely champion.

Score:

GEC Ritter Nordhorn - Romijnder Devils Nijmegen 12:4 (6:2 / 3:1 / 3:1)

3. / 0:1 / Mike Vedder

4. / 1:1 / Michael Sotor

5. / 2:1 / Marvin Raslan

8. / 3:1 / Lukas Hausmanninger

11. / 3:2 / Honda Zelenka

12. / 4:2 / Lukas Hausmanninger

19. / 5:2 / Lukas Hausmanninger

20. / 6:2 / Ludwig Synwiec

21. / 6:3 / Mike Vedder

22. / 7:3 / Christian Synowiec

32. / 8:3 / Lukas Hausmanninger

40. / 9:3 / Lukas Hausmanninger

48. / 10:3 / Marvin Raslan

49. / 11:3 / Lukas Hausmanninger

55. / 11:4 / Mike Vedder

60. / 12:4 / Julian Olthuis

Weblinks:

	GEC Die Ritter Nordhorn Homepage of the German icehockey team GEC Die Ritter Nordhorn.
	Romijnders Devils Nijmegen Homepage of the Dutch icehockey team Romijnders Devils Nijmegen.
	Ice Rink Nordhorn Homepage of the Ice Rink at Nordhorn (Germany).