Defending champions ECDC women are fighting for another triumph in the final tournament of the EWHL Euro Cup in Zug – AllgäuHIT

The ECDC women are once again in the final tournament of the EWHL Euro Cup, the most prestigious competition for club teams in Central European women's ice hockey. As defending champions, the Indians will face strong competition, including the two top clubs from Budapest – HK Budapest and MAC Budapest – as well as host EV Zug, the current table leader in the top Swiss league.

The final round promises exciting duels as the participating teams are the same as last year. On Saturday at 1 p.m. the Memmingen women will meet HK Budapest in the semi-finals. The second semi-final between EV Zug and MAC Budapest follows at 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, the losers of the semi-finals will play in the game for third place at 1 p.m., while the winners of the semi-finals will meet in the final at 4:30 p.m.

Last year the Indians secured their Euro Cup (formerly Super Cup) title. In the semi-final they narrowly beat HK Budapest 4-3 on penalties before defeating MAC Budapest 3-0 in the final.

ECDC coach Waldemar Dietrich is looking forward to the challenge: “They are all top opponents. It's a lot of fun to compete with teams at such a high level. These teams want to play ice hockey, not just destroy the opponent's game.” However, he also emphasized the difficulty of the tournament: “Anyone can beat anyone. We need two top performances to be able to repeat our success from last year.”

The Indians' most recent encounters with HK Budapest last weekend showed how balanced the games can be. Memmingen won 3-1 on Saturday, but suffered a 3-1 defeat on Sunday. The statistics of both games were almost identical, which illustrated the close competition.

The Indians women will now aim to successfully defend their title, but it will undoubtedly be a hard-fought tournament in Zug.