The German ice hockey champions Red Bull Munich started the Champions Hockey League with a dramatic defeat. Coach Toni Söderholm’s team lost at the start of the premier class season with a new format and modified rules 3: 4 at Vitkovice Ridera from the Czech Republic. The decision was only made after 30 penalties.
It was 3-3 after regulation time, two power-play goals from Trevor Parkes (50′) and Austin Ortega (53′) brought Munich into overtime after being 3-1 down. National player Maximilian Kastner had previously scored (30th).
In the shootout, the Czechs scored with the first try, Munich countered with the second penalty by Chris DeSousa. Pure nerve failure followed, only after the 15th attempt could Stuart Percy place the puck in the goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger’s goal again, Munich’s Ben Smith failed afterwards.
RB was the only German team to be in the final in 2019, and in the past five appearances they have always reached at least the round of 16. This year, however, there is a new mode. Instead of 32, only 24 teams take part. These are not divided into groups as before, but are listed in a “regular season” (31 August to 18 October) in an overall table. Each team plays only once against six different opponents in each of three home and away games.