SSF Dragons Bonn - Red Devils Wernigerode 5-4 (2-2, 0-2, 3-0)

Floorball playoff time in Bonn: on 26th March 2023, the SSF Dragons Bonn hosted the first best of three match to determine one of the teams in the German Women Floorball Semifinals. With regular season leaders Dümptener Füchse and MFBC Leipzig/Grimma waiting for their opponents, Bonn had to battle the Red Devlis Wernigerode, who were the third-placed team after sixteen round-robin matches. The guests from the Harz region thus traveled to Sportpark Nord as the favorites for this game. The following weekend expected hosting the Rheinland team at their own premises. Even though the two matches in the regular season were rather straight ones for Wernigerode, I expected an interesting playoff match on that Sunday early afternoon.

This posting comes with a section of 504 major size pictures in the sports galleries.

SSF Dragons Bonn – Red Devils Wernigerode – Match Report

Playing it safe and analyzing the opponent’s tactics? Avoiding to trail early? This first match of the best-of-three series did not have anything similar. After 3:30 minutes, the score was already 1-2. Sina Bothe completed a left wing attack with a nice shot after some two minutes. Eveliina Hannula, who sniped the deciding pass for that first goal, took profit of an excellent Wernigerode forecheck by Bothe and converted for the guests a second time. Michelle Mittermüller closed up the score just 16 seconds later. Wernigerode played with two lines during this time – which also lead to the situation that their captain Pauline Wolf most of the time was on the players’ bench.

Overall, Bonn, who initially felt to struggle with the guests’ strategy, got a bit better towards the end of the first period. Leah Bartz sniped for the tie in the 15th minute. Especially in the minutes towards the first intermission, you felt significantly higher confidence among the hosting Dragons.

Wernigerode back in the lead after 40 minutes

In the second period, the Red Devils were again the team to take the lead. In the 24th minute, Luisa Diesener made her coaches Antti Koistinen and Jukka Peltonen as well as her team smile after a right wing attack. Bonn struggled a lot and did too many mistakes – but there were also unlucky. Just a few seconds after Bartz hit the post, Marie Suske was more successful on the other side of the rink and brought the lead for Wernigerode back to two goals (28th). She took profit of overall confusion after a center line free hit. The referees were completely out of position – and so was the Bonn defense in here.

The remaining second period did not really give too many reasons for optimistic thoughts on the Bonn side. First of all, Wernigerode felt to adopt much better to the interpretations and characteristics of the umpiring of the match. Furthermore, Bonn allowed too many turnovers from save situations. The Red Devils’ fast breaks were not efficient enough for an additional score, but they fel to take a lot of power away from the nominal underdog in this part of the match.

A remarkable comeback

The Bonn coaches felt to have found excellent adoptions to their match in the second intermission. Furthermore they also had the necessary luck that the third period started with a bang. National team player Elena Bröker closed up the score after just nine seconds, which – of course – additionally boosted the teams’ confidence. The hosts also managed much better to create gaps in the opponent’s defense. For example, they simply managed to be faster than the defenders in several situations. One of these situations happened In the 45th minute. Gundula Schwend sent Friederike Schlotmann, who burst through the right wing and tied the score.

The match saw opportunities on both sides, but the next score took about nine minutes to happen. Anika Weißkirchen gave Bonn the very first lead of this battle. Her 54th minute shot went straight into the Devils’ hearts, especially as Bröker had four really good chances in her turn before and just could not convert. Thereafter Wernigerode tried to push towards Marlene Oertel. But even pulling netminder Jacqueline Fiedler for the last two minutes did not lead to a goal, so that Bonn won the first match of the series at home.

SSF Dragons Bonn – Red Devils Wernigerode – My View of the Match

Bonn paved the way to an interesting match-up at Wernigerode Stadtfeldhalle th following weekend. As the underdogs, they felt to be just a bit weaker than the Harz ladies. But they changed they game plan for the last 20 minutes and Wernigerode was not able to adopt properly. Especially in the third period, the match was really good entertainment and an interesting thrill. Bad luck that the umpiring was partially not sufficient for a Bundesliga playoff battle.

SSF Dragons Bonn – Red Devils Wernigerode – Lineups

SSF Dragons Bonn: 1 Marlene Oertel – 3 Friederike Schlotmann, 4 Elena Bröker, 6 Michelle Klaiber, 9 Luisa Jahn, 10 Leah Bartz, 12 Claudia Birkigt, 13 Jana Feix, 14 Gundula Schwend, 15 Anika Weißkirchen, 16 Michelle Mittermüller, 17 Ellen Kunigk, 18 Kaja Waloßek, 19 Emma Fischbach, 77 Michaela Strnadova

Red Devils Wernigerode: 4 Jacqueline Fiedler, 39 Anny Lee Ellenberg – 7 Pauline Wolf, 9 Julia Noel, 12 Lilly-Frances Tropschug, 13 Emma Schröferl, 17 Anouk Wolf, 20 Annukka Lönnrot, 22 Marie Suske, 28 Lisa Franze, 38 Hanna Vainio, 55 Eveliina Hannula, 66 Sina Bothe, 70 Elisa Virtanen, 96 Luisa Diesener