ERC Ingolstadt rookie goaltender Marco Eisenhut played inline hockey for the first time in his life in May. In June, he was playing for the German national team at the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship.
by Derek O'Brien
PARDUBICE - Several ice hockey players took part in the recent IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Some of the better-known players included Aleš Hemský, Dick Axelsson, and veteran goaltender Sasu Hovi, who backstopped Finland to the gold medal. As we told you previously, there were some players from CHL clubs in the tournament, too. TPS Turku teammates Marko Virtala and Camilo Miettinen are also taking gold medals back to Finland, and Sparta Prague's Jan Buchtele rolled around the floor for the host Czech team.
Some of those players have played inline hockey as a form of off-season training all their lives, but one of the more interesting stories here is that of 19-year-old German goaltender Marco Eisenhut. His story's interesting because he's never done it before.
"They called me four weeks before the tournament started and I'd never played inline hockey in my life," the Deggendorf native admitted. "At first it was hard but now it's okay. I don't know how it will be when I go back on the ice."
It may seem like the two forms of hockey are similar enough, but anyone who's tried to play both sports knows, they're not exactly the same. The differences can be especially big for a goalie.
"There are lots of differences," Eisenhut found out during his five-week inline experiment. "You can't slide on the floor like you can on the ice, and it's always hard when the guys are coming at you 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 so often."
Eisenhut played in just one game in the Inline Hockey World Championship and did quite well, earning a point for his German team in a 4-3 overtime defeat despite being out-shot 35-17 by a strong Swedish squad.
Turning attention back to his career on the ice, Eisenhut is a product of EV Landshut and just finished his first professional season in the German 2nd League. Now, he's taking another step up to ERC Ingolstadt and the DEL.
"I know the (Ingolstadt) general manager pretty well and he said it would be good for me," the young netminder said, explaining why he's making the jump now. "I think so too because I'm a young player and I can learn from everyone there." As his ability to quickly adapt to the inline game has shown us, he can be a fast learner.
Ingolstadt is a founding member of the CHL, and will compete in Group H with SaiPa Lappeenranta, Vítkovice Ostrava and EV Zug. As a new kid on the block who will have to work hard to earn playing time, Eisenhut doesn't yet know if he'll see much time on the ice during the tournament, but is looking forward to the experience nonetheless.
"I think it's a great experience for a young guy like me and it's always a good thing to play against teams from all over Europe. I think it's a good idea."
He'll have to get to work right away, as his time with the national inline team means he doesn't have any summer holiday. "No, not anymore. This was my holiday," he chuckled, acknowledging that he enjoyed the experience.
Once he gets back home, Eisenhut will start on the off-season routine that every hockey player goes through, and then in the middle of July he'll finally join his new team.