Augsburger Panther start season preparation against EHC Biel

The Augsburg Panther still have no coach, but now he has Del-Club already announced the dates of the first preparatory games. The Augsburg ice hockey professionals will be for the first time in the Switzerland Test under competition conditions. At 7 p.m. you will go on the ice at the Swiss first division club EHC Biel-Bienne. The AEV was eliminated against Biel in the Champions Hockey League 2019 in two games (2: 2, 1: 2 NV). The Swiss fans in the Curt Frenzel Stadium ensured a lot of rioting at home.

First game in the Curt Frenzel Stadium against Graz 99ers

Two days later, the Augsburg fans can examine their new team for the first time in the Curt Frenzel Stadium at home. The opponent is the Austrian first division club Graz 99ers at 2 p.m. A second home game is currently planned for September 5th.

Since Tuesday evening, it has also been clear that Düsseldorfer eG will no longer play in the DEL in the coming season. Because in the last game of the DEL2 final series, the Dresden Eislöwen secured not only the DEL2 championship, but also the promotion to the DEL with a dramatic 2: 1 (0: 0: 0, 0: 1, 1, 1: 0) after extra time at the Ravensburg Towerstars.

Dresden Eislöwen rise – the thumb of Düsseldorfer eG does not help

The DEG Ravensburg has kept his fingers crossed since March. For free. If Ravensburg had won, the Düsseldorfers had remained first -class because they had not applied for a license for the DEL. Two years earlier, the tower stars had risen in sports, but had not previously registered for the DEL. It was the same last season with the Eisbären Regensburg – both times the Augsburg Panther benefited.

The DEG wasn’t that luck. For the third time in the 90-year history of the club, she has to go into second class. A long journey ended in Ravensburg for the Dresden Eislöwen. More than 35 years after the club was founded, the team from the Saxon state capital is first class. After the Lausitzer Füchsen, who were among the founding members of the DEL in 1994 as ESG Saxony Weißwasser/Chemnitz, the ice lions are the second club from Saxony, which made it into the highest German league.

Ex-Aev player Drew Leblanc convinced in Dresden

Eislöwen coach Niklas Sundblad is now the first person in German ice hockey, who has become champion in the 1st and 2nd league as a player and as a coach. As with the DEL championship with Ingolstadt, exactly eleven years ago it took a seventh game for Sundblad and his team.

The team’s supports were mainly goalkeeper Danny from the birches and also the ex-Aev player Drew Leblanc.

Goalkeeper Danny leaves the ice lion from the birch

The 40-year-old goalkeeper, who won silver with the German national team at the Olympic Games in South Korea in 2018, will now leave the Eislöwen. He confirmed this again on Tuesday in the middle of the promotion celebrations.

Dresden has a DEL budget of seven million euros

In two weeks, Dresden must have submitted all license documents to the DEL. « It will be very, very extensive. We know the license regulations of the DEL, but now we have to think again and only have 14 days, » Managing Director Maik Walsdorf told the MDR. The Eislöwen are planning to increase the budget to around seven million euros, and the home venue, which is located directly in the city center on the Elbe, is also to be expanded. The budget is roughly at the height of the AEV.

Eisstadion is to be expanded to 5000 spectators

So far, around 4,400 spectators have space in the Joynext-Arena, the namesake is a regional automotive supplier, and in the future the capacity is to be expanded to 5000 places. In the DEL2, the Eislöwen had an average of around 3700 spectators per game.