The Landshut Diaries
The month was October, the destination was Landshut, Germany, and the Belfast Giants were all going on a European tour. The reason? The Northern Irish side would represent the UK’s Elite Ice Hockey League in the second round of the Continental Cup, having qualified by winning the league in 2011/12.
For three intrepid Vipers fans, the adventure began in a McDonalds car park East of Newcastle. They made their way north of the border where, inexplicably, it was sunny, and found themselves at a bar in Edinburgh airport where they were informed by an eccentric barman that cider was good for a cold. This news pleased the Vipers, and they indulged in a customary pre-flight beverage safe in the knowledge that their health would be significantly improved for having done so.
An uneventful budget airline flight to Munich later and they boarded a bus to a place in Bavaria no-one had ever heard of to join their Belfast Giants-supporting friends for a weekend which they innocently believed would incude nothing more than beer, hockey and a few interestingly-named sausages. Little did they know, they were in for quite an adventure…
Thursday 18th October
No hockey was due to take place on the day of arrival, so we took the opportunity to suss out the lay of the Land(shut) and find our way around our new German home. I realised I remembered a lot more German than I thought from my dim and distant past, and despite a hilarious mushroom-related misunderstanding, we took to our German surroundings quite happily. The beer was tasty, the people friendly and it wasn’t peeing down with rain. There was also a bar called ‘the Viper Lounge’. Everyone’s a winner!
Friday 19th October
A leisurely breakfast was followed by a visit to a German market, and as the sun broke through the clouds things couldn’t have been MORE German as we sat outside a bar on the street, watching a lederhosen-clad oompah band work their way through a collection of brass-themed numbers.
But we were here for one thing, and the time had come. It was time to get down to the business of ice hockey. We navigated our way to the Landshut rink, situated in a quiet residential area at the edge of the town, and stood outside with an ever-increasing Giants contingent. The bar opened and the Vipers did their former team proud, first at the bar and first with the afternoon beers.
The rink itself was absolutely baltic. It made Whitley Bay seem like the Algarve. Layers of clothing were donned, and, in a throwback to an 80’s football match, terraces were the scene for the first game of the Continental Cup, which featured Belfast against Dutch side the Geleen Eaters, or ‘Smoke Eaters’. There was a reasonable crowd from the Netherlands in attendance but they were dwarfed by the Giants (yes, I totally went there) who probably numbered around 150. As a wizened neutral I was ready for my usual mix of casual impartiality and affected disinterest but strangely, as the Giants came out to warm up I was gripped by a sense of loyalty I hadn’t expected to feel. We were all far from home, and we were all representing British ice hockey – for once, I felt a part of something. And having spent the best part of a year and a half without a team to call my own, I liked it.
Following an amusing incident in which I used my ninja German skills to rescue a hapless Giants fan from entering the women’s toilets instead of the the men’s, it was time for the game. It started brightly, the Giants wasting no time getting into their stride; they looked confident and comfortable on the German ice, despite the clouds of mist and dripping condensation. The fans were in fine voice and it was my first opportunity to see the new crop of Belfast imports. Daymen Rycroft stood out early on, with strong skating and a real nose for goal.
The Giants got off the mark and took control of the game from that point on. More goals came and it quickly became clear that these two sides were not on the same level. The Dutch battled hard but the gap in class was evident from simple skating skills to stick-handling right through to netminding – theirs looked clumsy and slow; he did his best to fight off the onslaught but he was not equal to the challenge. Conversely, Stephen Murphy spent most of his time getting quite cold, presumably, as his team did all the pressing at the other end of the ice.
I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of what was an incredibly one-sided opening game aside from to mention a couple of stand-out moments. Noah Clarke poached a powerplay goal from the blueline. The Giants had a surprisingly hopeless 5 on 3 effort which barely produced a shot let alone a goal. A temporary blip. In the second period, Greg Stewart was in a different class, first knocking a Dutch player flying with a careless, off the cuff check that was achingly cool, then scoring the standout goal of the day: on his own, puck at his stick, he shrugged off an opponent’s challenge as if it was nothing before handling the puck around the netminder and lifting it to the roof of the net, all in the space of a few seconds. Who needs current NHLers? The Giants have an ex-NHLer and he put on a masterclass today.
More goals were scored. 5 in the first period, 2 more in the second and another 4 in the final period. Back-up netminder Andrew Dickson took to the net once the Giants were 7 up, and didn’t have much to do but narrowly missed a shutout, conceding the Eaters’ only goal in the third period. 11-1 was the final score, with the final goal well taken effort by Gareth Roberts, which was greeted with one of the loudest cheers of the day.
And so it was over. It had sadly been a case of men versus boys, and despite a spirited effort the Dutch were no match for the Northern Irish team. Suddenly, talk turned to Italy, and flights to Bolzano were discussed, where the next round takes place at the end of November. Were these talks premature? Probably, but the next game between hosts the Landshut Cannibals and unkown quantity, Romanian side HSC Csikzereda, would give us a better idea of what else the Giants were up against.
The second game of the day saw a much bigger crowd as the hosts turned up to welcome their team, and their guests, to the Continental Cup. The hockey was fast and clean, typical of European hockey, and the hosts took an early lead amidst a collection of 80’s hits being performed by the Giants faithful, who were outsinging everyone in the rink. And probably the whole of Bavaria at that moment.
The second game was a much closer affair, the Romanians digging in and not allowing the Germans to play as freely as they would have liked, their opponents interrupting their attacking flow at every opportunity. Despite the Germans taking the lead, it looked for a time as if the game could be tied up and lead to overtime but despite putting up a valiant defence, the Romanians could not find a scoring lane to save their lives and the Germans shut them out, scoring again late on in the game to take a 2 goal victory.
We anticipated the Saturday night clash between the hosts and the Giants as probably the game of the weekend, however despite their best efforts, after day one of the competition none of the sides looked equal to the EIHL team in this writer’s humble opinion. But with two days of hockey still remaining, you could never be sure what might be around the corner. Some things were certainties however – the jolly German barman would continue to ring his bell, the Giants fans would sing like a champion choir, and the Vipers would be repeatedly mistaken for a Romanian team.
Join me tomorrow for a round-up of the action from days 2 and 3 of the Continental Cup, along with heavily edited coverage of the legendary after party.
