The THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers probably could not have wished for a better home debut weekend in the Champions Hockey League. An OT win over Mountfield HK was followed by beating Finnish champions 4-3 with a late winning goal.
Those results backed up an away win against Mountfield to put them in a healthy position ahead of Game Days 5 and 6. We sat down with Ice Tigers' Sport Manager Martin Jiranek to look at how it's gone so far.
"The First two games showed us the high level of hockey in the Champions Hockey League," he explained ahead of their home debut. "The game against Mountfield (was) probably the key game for who will go into the playoffs. We didn't want to go into the Sunday game against Kärpät as a 'must win' situation if we'd lost to Mountfield."
For the first-timers, it's been an experience in itself just facing new teams. "The beauty, and what makes CHL so interesting, is that you have different styles of play from different countries against each other - and not in an international tournament, it's club teams," commented Jiranek. "And you see the differences - when you play Czechs it's a lot more puck skills, the difference to Germany is maybe our puck skill isn't as good, but we skate very well and play very organised systems. We play more physical, straight up and down 'power hockey'."
"These games have more of a playoff intensity to them because you can win so much in a short period of time."Martin Jiranek (Sport Manager, THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers)
Although it's their first season, the Ice Tigers are both ambitious and realistic in what they want to achieve. "Of course we want to try and make the playoffs, you want to come out of your group. The rest we just want our fans to enjoy the experience, we want our players to learn from it, and also it's a very good preparation before our league games. Let's face it, our league pays our salaries and is our bread and butter, but these CHL games bring a playoff atmosphere very early."
"Maybe in the past teams looked at CHL as exhibition, but now it's getting more popular," said the Alberta native. "The fan support is growing, players are starting to read more about the CHL, so these games have more of a playoff intensity to them than even league games, because you can win so much in such a short period of time."
German teams have promised much in the CHL so far, but none have ever made it deep into the competition. "It could be a little bit on the skill level, we've had some teams that made the playoffs, but when you get into the playoffs and you play against the top Swedish or Finnish or Czech teams, they are very strong. They seem to be able to have another level at the moment in the playoffs in the Champions Hockey League," admitted Jiranek.
"The winners of the CHL have been the Swedes & Finns, and they've proven to everyone that in Europe they work hard at hockey. But I think the gap between Germany and those top countries has got much smaller. And I think now the German teams will go further in the playoffs if not this year then next season, and edge closer to the top end European teams."
So would the Ice Tigers' Sport Manager like to play one of those Finnish or Sweden teams if they make the playoffs? "Yes, in the way that it's an experience to play against them. I wouldn't want to sit here and say we hope to play them because we have a good chance to win!" he said. "Every game you have a chance to win, if we play our best we have a chance. But just the honour to go that far and to meet a team in the playoffs would be great. We play CHL to win, but also for experience for the team and fans, it raises awareness of hockey in Europe, and also of the THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers. We want to be known as one of the top teams in Germany and make our names known in European hockey."
With eyes now turned on to the start of the DEL season on Friday, is re-qualifying for the CHL high on the agenda? "Yes, that goes hand in hand with going as far as we can in the DEL. Of course we want to win the championship, but our 'goal' I always say is to make the playoffs and be in the Top 6," he explained. "When you're in that, then let's see what happens. We want to make the CHL again, and the further the season goes we sharpen our focus on what we have to achieve to do that, do we have to finish second, third and so on."