Banners On The Road – FASS Berlin vs ESC Dresden 02/03/24

Posted: 05/03/2024 | Author: | Filed under: Banners On The Road, Germany | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Regionalliga Ost Playoff Quarter Finals, Game 1

FASS Berlin 11-3 ESC Dresden “Eislöwen Juniors”

Berlin: Babinsky, Freunschlag x2, Volynec x3, Merk x2, Butasch x2 (1sh), Fiedler

Dresden: Götze, Vachon, Bertholdt pp

The result is academic: The Erika-Hess-Eisstadion pictured above, juts into the fading Berlin evening light. The rink was built in the 1960s and it looks every bit of it outside and in. I paid my 9 Euro (up from 7, it was a playoff game after all) and was greeted by red piping and a lot of concrete to the point it felt like I was in a bunker.

The rink has a pad slightly bigger than that of Slough or Dumfries, with folding plastic seats down the long sides that screams “communal German facility” down the side and terracing behind each goal.

The Freier Akademischer Sportverein Sigmundshof was founded in 1962 by students from the Berlin Technical University. That university sense of humour maintains in the name as the acronym is FASS and fass is the German word for a cask or a barrel. The hockey section was founded in 1974 though the club has expanded well past being just a university thing and members of the junior section are mascots for the evening with others dotted around the stands.

Freshly made waffle in hand, I took a moment to concentrate on the warm up. FASS had lost 4 games all season on their way to pipping Schönheide to the Regionalliga Ost regular season title were taking on 8th placed ESC Dresden who had won a sum total of 5 of the 26 league games. FASS were resting some of their top end talent, including former DEL defenceman, Henry Hasse against a Dresden side who wore jerseys with names on the back and no adverts. I had a feeling I could guess how this game was going to go.

Wearing #69 is a brave choice for a netminder but Vincent Stula in net for Dresden was going to need to be brave given he was immediately under fire, turning away 4 or 5 shots before his colleagues even managed one. However he was beaten early. A delayed penalty saw the hosts send out the extra attacker and the passing around began. Eventually Gregor Kubail teed up defenceman Markus Babinsky who stepped into the shot and blew the puck by Stula.

It was 2-0 shortly afterwards as Stefan Freunschlag was the beneficiary. The Austrian was on the end of a fine passing move that left the visitors only able to watch as Freunschlag took the feed and ripped it blocker side and then it was 3-0 as a repeat of the above antics set up Daniel Volynec to fire past Stula.

Dresden were not going away quietly and actually were playing some solid hockey. Their issue was that they were being outclassed. The benefit of that was that FASS started getting a bit sloppy and complacent. A late powerplay saw FASS goalie Sören Thiem called into actually making some saves. As the period rolled to its conclusion, he though he had another as he snapped his arm around a well taken shot from Dresden’s Tim Götze. Sadly for Thiem, the momentum of the puck carried it all the way under his arm and despite a despairing dive backwards, the puck made it over the line. The first period ended 3-1 which arguably flattered the visitors but it nice that they’d gotten something for their efforts.

The second started much like the first, until it didn’t. That complacency that had crept into the hosts hadn’t fully gone away and they were caught puck watching. Maxim Rezibov found Dresden’s lone Canadian, Guillaume Vachon who swept the puck through the 5 hole of Thiem. At 3-2, were FASS about to come unstuck?

The answer was an emphatic no. All Dresden had done was wake up “die Akademiker”. The slick passing went into overdrive and Volynec had his second of the night and moments later it was 5-2 as Babinsky added his second where his team mates just repeated the exact same move that had gotten them the first.

This actually took the pace right out of the game for a time. It seemed like both sides had decided that the game was over and they’d play out the nearly half an hour that was left. Both sides were playing their game and this ultimately meant that FASS would score because they were just better. Freunschlag would drive the net and slide it past Sulda for the 6th before Dennis Merk smacked in a 7th and the 8th went in just 7 seconds later as Volynec completed his hattrick with a carbon copy of Merk’s goal. When Dimitry Butasch made it 9 just over 30 seconds after that, Sulda lobbed his stick across the ice in disgust having conceded 3 goals in 56 seconds with no sign of his backup coming anywhere near the ice to relive him.

With the score at 9-2, the game was over as a contest at the 40-minute mark as I drained my beer and put the cup in the bin and wondered what madness would come in the third. An early Dresden powerplay gave me an answer as Butasch added his second of the night, sprinting away to fire past Sulda, alarmingly still in net, to give the hosts double figures. Dresden did actually convert on the powerplay moments later, Franz Bertholdt’s shot from the hashmarks beating Thiem.

From there, FASS decided to just hold their opponents at arms length and force more saves from Sulda and trying not to get injured ahead of the remainder of the 3 game series.

The final word went to the hosts. FASS captain Tom Fiedler took a feed at the top of the crease and poked and poked till the puck crossed the line. The visitors didn’t like it and argued the case but the referees were unmoved and it was 11-3.

The game limped towards the end, the result an absolute certainty. A late delayed penalty saw Sulda race to the bench for the extra attacker only for the clock to expire moments later and his teammates turn towards the net to hug a goalie that wasn’t there, stood on the bench looking exhausted and exasperated. With the man of the match not a thing in the game at this level of the German game, the players skated off and I headed back towards the U-Bahn and my flight home in just over 9 hours.

So, what did I watch? To anchor the game in language my British readers will understand it, the game was South 1 standard in terms of skill and ability but arguably less physical. FASS vs Streatham or Chelmsford would be an interesting game to watch because the German side would be more skilled but the physicality of the Redhawks or Chieftains would cause them issues whereas FASS vs Slough would see the Germans the bigger side but arguably not as skilled. Dresden are what they are, the Elbflorenz’s version of a development team with a few older bodies thrown in. They’d be an interesting match up against Romford, Oxford, MK Thunder or potentially even Widnes from what I’ve seen of the Wild from game tape.

The game was as one sided as the scoreline suggests. Dresden clearly had an idea, to make the game a little messy, not allow FASS the space to pass the puck and counter. They struggled with this for the simple fact that they didn’t have the quality to execute in the way that they wanted to. They weren’t physical enough to win the battles in the corners, they couldn’t clog the neutral zone effectively against a team with more speed and they spent so much time puck watching in the zone that they it was easy for the hosts to just pass around them.

It’s easy to see from this game why FASS won the regular season. These three-game series feel almost perfunctory against a team that won less than a quarter of the games they did but any test is a good test. Dresden weren’t of the right level to really give them a workout but for about 25-30 minutes they certainly were made to think. They had moments where they seemed to think they didn’t need to pay attention and all the effortless breakouts and quick passing through the neutral zone became bogged down in guys just not paying attention. They weren’t punished, or certainly not punished enough, for that but there were moments where it seemed the game could get to cricket score levels which arguably helps nobody in game one of a lengthy postseason.

There are bigger challenges in the pipeline for the Berlin side. With a semifinal looming against Lauterbach, who beat out the Eisbären Juniors Berlin in their 4th vs 5th series, FASS know that they will need to be sharper even though they beat die Luchse in all their regular season meetings.

Games like this are where my hockey journey started. In fact, this is the level of hockey that the first game I ever saw live was at so there was a fun nostalgia to it. With Berlin as a city, it has its multi time German champion side playing in a massive multipurpose arena and you know what? That’s a great. I love going to Eisbären games, it’s unmatched for atmosphere. If BOTW has been about anything this season, it’s been that hockey big or small is entertaining and of value. I will die on that hill. There’s so much to see if you go looking and yeah, I had to go looking for this game. It didn’t have hundreds of people singing, it wasn’t in a giant arena but it’s the sport we love and all that comes along with it. I got to tramp around one of Europe’s great cities, got 14 goals for 9€, got a waffle freshly made for me at an ice rink and just sat back with a beer and enjoyed myself. I can’t ask for anything more.

Lowlight of the night: Would have been nicer if the game was a bit closer.

Highlight of the night: Some of the FASS goals were very pretty and I got playoff hockey for less than a tenner.