The Heilbronner Falken, the Bietigheim Steelers, the Tilburg Trappers and the Hannover Scorpions, the two main round top teams of the Oberliga Nord and the Oberliga Süd, each prevailed comfortably in the quarterfinals and will meet in the semifinals starting next Sunday, March 30, 2025. The champion of one Oberliga division will play against the runner-up of the other Oberliga division.
Two 4-0 wins in the quarter-final series
With a clear 4-0 win in their quarterfinal series, the Tilburg Trappers and the Hannover Scorpions secured their tickets for the semifinals. The Dutch team defeated the Tölzer Löwen, who finished fifth in the main round of the Oberliga Süd against the champions from the north. They lost one match by a single goal, and twice the Trappers had scored two more goals. Only the first home game of the underdogs was clearly won by the Tilburg team with an 8-2 victory. The Hannover Scorpions eliminated the Deggendorfer SC 4-0, but had to go to overtime in the first match. In overtime, Brett Cameron, who had just equalized, scored the 3-2 for the Scorpions. Two 5-2 victories for Hannover followed in the fourth match with a narrow 2-1 win for the representative of the Oberliga Nord, which meant reaching the semi-finals.
Two 4-1 wins in the quarter-finals
The Heilbronner Falken, Master of Oberliga Süd, got it with league competitor ECDC Memmingen Indians and initially pulled ahead 3-0 in the series – however, in game one, overtime was necessary. With Heilbronn's first match puck, the Indians showed their potential, taking the lead through Markus Lillich after just 67 seconds and never letting it slip from their grasp again. Two days later, the favorites sealed the deal and can now call themselves semifinalists in 2024/25. Things went somewhat differently in the series of Bietigheim Steelers against the KSW IceFighters Leipzig; the Sachsen The Steelers surprised Leipzig in their first matchup. Daniel Visner scored the 2-1 goal for Leipzig with just eleven minutes left in the game, but Bietigheim had no answer. However, the following four matches fell to the runners-up from the southern German region, and in the end, the favorites triumphed.
Steelers want to stop Trappers
In the semifinals, the Steelers will now face the Tilburg Trappers and can look forward to the support of the most spectators of all semifinalists. Baden-WürttembergThey have Jan Vesely, the top scorer of the playoffs so far, but Tilburg has four players in the top seven of the scoring list: Anthony Rinaldi, Phillip Marinaccio, D'Artagnan Joly, and Ties van Soest. It is also striking that the Dutch, along with the already eliminated SC Riessersee, are the fairest team in the playoffs, receiving just eight penalty minutes per game. In the regular season, they were in the Oberliga Nord was still the team with the second most penalty minutes, at that time their time in the penalty box amounted to 14,2 minutes per game.
Falcons challenge Scorpions
The Hannover Scorpions, the toughest team in the North regular season with 17,5 penalty minutes per game, have also seen a similar development. They have also significantly reduced their penalty minutes in the playoffs to currently 9,1 minutes per game and will now face Heilbronner Falken, who have the best power play of all teams still in the competition with 31,6 percent. Thomas Supis is the top-scoring defender in their ranks and Patrick Berger is the Fangquote best goalie the goal of the Falcons. The Niedersachsen can counter this by pointing to the top scoring player Jordan Knackstedt – because he wears the Scorpions jersey.
At least four triumphs needed to reach the final
The semifinals, which begin on Sunday, March 30, will also be played in a best-of-seven format. This means that, like the quarterfinals, four wins are required to advance. The two finalists will be announced by Sunday, April 13 at the latest, and they will then face off in their first final match on Thursday, April 17.
As in the previous playoff rounds, the semifinals will also be played by SpradeTV streamed live. Statistics for all matches can be found at the following link: https://deb-online.live/liga/olpo/
Semifinals dates
Sunday March 30th
16:30 PM Tilburg Trappers – Bietigheim Steelers
18:30 p.m. Heilbronner Falken – Hanover Scorpions
Tuesday April 01th
19:30 p.m. Bietigheim Steelers – Tilburg Trappers
20:00 Hannover Scorpions – Heilbronner Falken
Friday April 04th
19:30 p.m. Heilbronner Falken – Hanover Scorpions
20:00 PM Tilburg Trappers – Bietigheim Steelers
Sunday April 06th
17:00 p.m. Bietigheim Steelers – Tilburg Trappers
18:00 Hannover Scorpions – Heilbronner Falken
Tuesday, April 08 (if necessary)
19:30 p.m. Heilbronner Falken – Hanover Scorpions
20:00 PM Tilburg Trappers – Bietigheim Steelers
Friday, April 11 (if necessary)
19:30 p.m. Bietigheim Steelers – Tilburg Trappers
20:00 Hannover Scorpions – Heilbronner Falken
Sunday, April 13 (if necessary)
18:30 p.m. Heilbronner Falken – Hanover Scorpions
19:00 PM Tilburg Trappers – Bietigheim Steelers
Thursday April 17st
Start of the final