The 2018–19 Oberliga season was the 60th season of the Oberliga, the third tier of German ice hockey. The Oberliga operated with two regional leagues, North and South. 25 teams competed in the season that lasted from 21 September 2018 till 30 April 2019. The Tilburg Trappers and EC Peiting won the North and South premierships respectively. EV Landshut was crowned Oberliga champion for winning the playoffs, and by doing so they also secured promotion to DEL2. EHC Waldkraiburg, EC Harzer Falken, and ECC Preussen Berlin were all relegated to the Regionalliga.

Teams

Oberliga North Teams: 2018–19 SeasonTeamLocationArenaCapacityFoundedJoined league City State Füchse Duisburg Duisburg North Rhine-Westphalia Scania Arena 4,800 1971 2010 Black Dragons Erfurt Erfurt Thuringia Kartoffelhalle Erfurt 1,200 2010 2010 Moskitos Essen Essen North Rhine-Westphalia Eissporthalle Essen-West 3,850 1994 2015 Saale Bulls Halle Halle (Saale) Saxony-Anhalt Eissporthalle Halle 2,200 2004 2010 Hamburg Crocodiles Hamburg Hamburg Eisland Farmsen 2,300 1990 2010 Hannover Indians Hannover Lower Saxony Eisstadion am Pferdeturm 4,608 1948 2013 Hannover Scorpions Hannover Lower Saxony Eishalle Langenhagen 3,800 1996 2013 EC Harzer Falken Braunlage Lower Saxony Eisstadion Braunlage 2,548 1984 2013 Herner EV 2007 Herne North Rhine-Westphalia Gysenberghalle 3,700 2007 2012 IceFighters Leipzig Leipzig Saxony Kohlrabizirkus Eisarena 2,500 2010 2010 ECC Preussen Berlin Berlin Berlin Eissporthalle Charlottenburg 1,000 2004 2015 Rostock Piranhas Rostock Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Eishalle Rostock 2,000 1990 2010 Tilburg Trappers Tilburg North Brabant IJssportcentrum Tilburg 2,500 1938 2015

Oberliga North planned to expand to a sixteen team competition for 2018/19. However, those plans did not eventuate when the champions of Regionalliga North (Weserstars Bremen), East (ELV Tornado Niesky) and West (Herforder EV) all declined promotion to Oberliga North. The runners-up of each league also declined to submit an application for a licence. As such, the relegation of EC Harzer Falken was overturned and the team from Braunlage remained in the league. In August 2018, EHC Timmendorfer Strand 06 withdrew from the league and filed for bankruptcy. Oberliga North started the season with 13 teams.

Oberliga South Teams: 2018–19 SeasonTeamLocationArenaCapacityFoundedJoined league City State EV Landshut Landshut Bavaria Eisstadion am Gutenbergweg 4,996 1948 2019 Höchstadter EC Höchstadt Bavaria Eisstadion Höchstadt 2,000 1993 2018 ECDC Memmingen Memmingen Bavaria Eissportstadion am Hühnerberg 3,850 1992 2017 EV Lindau Islanders Lindau Bavaria Eichwaldstadion 1,100 1976 2016 EC Peiting Peiting Bavaria Eisstadion Peiting 2,500 1973 2000 SC Riessersee Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bavaria Olympia-Eissport-Zentrum 6,926 1920 2018 ERC Sonthofen 1999 Sonthofen Bavaria Eissporthalle Sonthofen 2,860 1999 2014 Eisbären Regensburg Regensburg Bavaria Donau Arena 4,961 1962 2010 Starbulls Rosenheim Rosenheim Bavaria Emilo Stadion 4,750 2000 2017 Selber Wölfe Selb Bavaria Hutschenreuther Eissporthalle 4,082 2004 2010 1. EV Weiden Weiden Bavaria Eisstadion Weiden 2,560 1985 2012 EHC Waldkraiburg Waldkraiburg Bavaria Eissporthalle Waldkraiburg 3,500 1991 2019

Oberliga South planned to expand to a fourteen-team competition for 2018/19. However, those plans were scrapped when the league was unable to find any suitable candidates in the Regionalliga East, South-West, or Bavaria. Deggendorfer SC left the league after being promoted to DEL2. Regionalliga South-West champion, SC Bietigheim-Bissingen U23 was unable to join the league due to the club having their first team in DEL2. TEV Miesbach also left the league after being relegated the previous season. Joining the league was the recently relegated DEL2 team, Bayreuth Tigers. On 16 May 2018, the DEL2 team SC Riessersee also joined the league after having their DEL2 licence cancelled. SC Riessersee had a protracted negotiation with DEL2 but ultimately was unable to agree to rejoin the league. SC Riessersee then agreed to join Oberliga South for 2018/19. Oberliga South admitted the team with strict conditions, including Riessersee not being able to participate in the championship playoffs and being forced to participate in the relegation playoffs regardless of their regular-season performance. Oberliga South started the season with 12 teams.

Oberliga North

Oberliga North ran from 21 September 2018 till 3 March 2019. The league operated with a 48-match (4 matches against each team) regular season. The top six teams automatically qualified for the championship playoffs. The next four teams advanced to the qualification playoffs, playing for two final spots in the championship playoffs. Teams finishing eleventh to thirteenth had their season end after the regular season. The thirteenth team would be relegated to the Regionalliga. After 26 days into the season, the Hamburg Crocodiles opened insolvency procedures, however, they were allowed to continue to compete during the regular season. The Oberliga board decided to impose the same conditions on Hamburg as they did SC Riessersee, the Crocodiles would be excluded from the championship playoffs. If they finished within the qualification positions, the next team below the qualification positions would take their place.

Regular season

Qualification playoffs

Teams finishing seventh to tenth play best of three match series in the qualification playoffs to determine the final two places from Oberliga North in the Championship playoffs. Due to Hamburg being excluded and finishing ninth, Erfurt Black Dragons, who finished eleventh, progressed to the qualification playoffs instead. The matches occurred between 5 March and 10 March 2020.

Qualified for Championship playoffs Team 1Team 2Series resultMatch 1Match 2Match 3Rostock Piranhas Erfurt Black Dragons 2:1 6–2 4–5 2–1 Icefighters Leipzig Füchse Duisburg 1:2 2–1 1–5 3–4 (OT)

Oberliga South

Oberliga South ran from 28 September 2018 till 10 March 2019. The league was broken into two stages. Stage one, the regular season, had all twelve teams compete in a home and away round before splitting into two regional groups for a second home and away round for a total of 32 matches. The top ten teams advanced to the Oberliga South qualification round to determine the league premier and eight qualifiers for the Oberliga championship playoffs. Normally the bottom two teams advanced to the relegation playoffs with eight Bayernliga teams, however, due to SC Riessersee entry conditions to the league, the bottom team and Riessersee would advance to the relegation playoffs.

Regular season

Group A#Team1ECDC Memmingen2EV Lindau Islanders3EC Peiting4SC Riessersee5Starbulls Rosenheim6ERC Sonthofen Bulls Group B#Team1Eisbären Regensburg2EHC Waldkraiburg3Selber Wölfe4Höchstadter EC51. EV Weiden6EV Landshut

Qualification round

Relegation playoffs

Ten teams took part in the relegation playoffs. Eight Regionalliga teams and two Oberliga teams. The top two teams from the eighteen match playoffs would qualify for the Oberliga in 2019/20. The bottom eight would qualify for the 2019/20 Regionalliga. SC Riessersee topped the playoffs to retain its status as an Oberliga team. EHC Waldkraiburg finished ninth and was relegated from Oberliga. EV Füssen secured promotion to Oberliga after finishing second.

Championship playoffs

The championship playoffs to determine the Oberliga champion and promotion to DEL2. The championship playoffs consisted of eight teams each from North and South who play a best of five series elimination format from the round of 16 to the Oberliga final. EV Landshut won the championship final series 3:2 over Tilburg Trappers to be crowned Oberliga-Meister and secure promotion to DEL2.

Oberliga-Meister EV Landshut Goaltenders: Patrick Berger, Leon Doubrawa, Maximilian Englbrecht, Philipp Maurer

Defenders: Sebastian Alt, Christian Ettwein, Stephan Kronthaler, Marius Nägele, Elia Ostwald, Paul Pfenninger, Mario Zimmermann, Luca Zitterbart

Attackers: Leon Abstreiter, Peter Abstreiter, Marco Baßler, Alexander Ehl, Christoph Fischhaber, Maximilian Forster, Maximilian Hofbauer, Miloslav Horava, Ales Jirik, Elias Lindner, Lukas Mühlbauer, Julien Pelletier, Tomas Plihal, Luis Schinko, Marc Schmidpeter, Marco Sedlar, Sebastian Stanik, Vitali Stähle, Luca Trinkberger, David Wrigley

Coaching staff: Axel Kammerer (head coach), Ralf Hantschke (General manager)

References

External links Official website Elite Prospects home