Marco Pewal: “Thursday is the most important game of the year”

It was not the start to the series against the Wipptal Broncos Weihenstephan that Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel had hoped for. The Tyroleans, who are aiming to reach the semi-finals of the Alps Hockey League for the first time, are already 0:2 down. Both games were lost by extremely narrow margins, but Marco Pewal, Head Coach of the Tyroleans, does not believe his team needs much mental rebuilding: “I don't think I need to build up the team mentally. In the playoffs - whether you win or lose - the game is over. We have another chance to prove ourselves on Thursday. In my opinion, we were the better team in the first two games. It's just the little things that make the difference at the moment.”

A decisive factor so far has been that the “Eagles” have never been able to take the lead in either game. Marco Pewal emphasizes the importance of the first goal: “We simply have to work even harder and play even easier. The first goal is obviously very important, as you've seen now. We weren´t in the lead once in the series so far. That would give us confidence and the game would change.” The Broncos' defensive approach is particularly problematic: “They play very defensively, try to destroy our game - and they've done that very well so far. We have to become more ruthless in front of goal. Their goalkeeper is playing very well, we have to get more traffic in front of the goal, take away his vision and take more shots.” Sterzing goalkeeper Dominik Groh saved 54 shots on goal in the second game alone, while the Czech made 37 saves in the first quarter-final.

The fact that Kitzbühel won all three duels against Sterzing in the regular season doesn't matter to Pewal: “This is the playoffs, it has nothing to do with the regular season. They had a lot of injuries at the start, even against us. We also played against them very early on in the season. If you look at how they've played in recent months, they were one of the best teams in the league.”

The most important game of the season is coming up for Kitzbühel on Thursday. The Tyroleans are particularly counting on the support of their fans: “The fans are our sixth man on the ice. They've given us great support throughout the season, even when things haven't always gone well. I hope they'll cheer us on in large numbers again on Thursday. The team definitely deserves it.” Despite the difficult starting position, the Villach native continues to believe in his team: “We believe that we can still turn the series around. Of course, we have our backs to the wall. But Thursday is the most important game of the year for us. We've already had a few important games this year, but this is really the game of the year. We're staying positive.”

You can watch whether Kitzbühel will manage their first win in the series on Thursday from 19:30 on valcome.tv.