So Cologne it is!

The Eisbären Berlin will play against the Kölner Haie in the first round of the German playoffs. The seven games series quarterfinal starts on Tuesday at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin. “In a perfect world we’d go undefeated” the American winger Barry Tallackson grinnes. “But in most off the times it never happens like that. Hopefully we can keep on going and take one series at a time”.

The Eisbären Berlin won the championship seven times in between the years 2005-2013. The last two seasons ended disappointingly losing in the playoff qualifier (2014 against Ingolstadt, 2015 against Nuremberg). “Finishing in second place makes everything ok. It was a similar year to the last two years except this time we finished second” top-scorer Darin Olver explains. “It is a lot more enjoyable, a lot easier going when the team is winning”. This year, 2016, they finished the regular season in second place with 92 points. Their 17-1-1-7 is the best home record of the league – on the road the Eisbären finished 10-3-2-11. Darin Olver (14 g, 26 a, 40 p) formed a unit with Barry Tallackson (16 g, 22 a, 38 p) and Marcel Noebels (11 g, 22 a, 33 p). “Barry and I don´t have the same roles as we had in Augsburg” Darin Olver resumes. “Statistically it is not the same. It is not like you are playing 25 minutes a night. As an Eisbär we are playing 17/18 minutes per night now and the expectations are a lot different. I think our chemistry is coming back a little bit more and throughout the year it looks pretty good. The season we had and the early on in the season in specially our line was producing many points for a while. We are a big part of the season that was ultimately our goal coming in”.

The self-confidence in the locker room seems to be good. Barry Tallackson says that “we got a good confidence going into the playoffs here. I mean, we ended the season pretty good. We had an awesome game against Mannheim, so we´re looking forward to the playoffs and whoever we´ll get first round we will be ready and prepared. You just got to go into the playoffs with the mentality that you have the confidence that you´re going to win every single night. You just got to be cool, calm and collective. It´s going to be a seven games series – so if one game doesn´t go so well, you just got to relax, refocus and get to work the next game. Being older just helps you to be calmer” he smiles.

Both forwards dream to finish the season with a perfect ending. Let´s be serious - for a hockey player nothing else than winning the championship is really fulfilling. “Self-confidence is night and day” Darin Olver says. “It´s back to how it was before when we were winning championships. I think we expect nothing last than to play good. The chance is there to get into the second round. Right now we are one of the contenders and that´s a good feeling. Now we are going into the playoffs excited and very confident”. kf

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