Monday, 16. March 2026 |
EHC Red Bull München: Biggest DEL win, Bavarian champions, and attendance record
A look at the raw numbers: Our team racked up a total of 34 wins and finished with exactly 100 points. The last time we reached this milestone was in the 2022–23 season.
“Then you’ve had a very good season”
The conclusion is correspondingly positive: “If you score 100 points in a regular season, then you’ve had a very good season. That would have been enough for a top position in recent years,” said Christian Winkler (Managing Director of Sports at Red Bull Ice Hockey) after the game in Berlin.
Only the Kölner Haie—who set the DEL regular-season points record with 116 points—the Adler Mannheim (103), and the Straubing Tigers (101) finished higher. This marked a first in the PENNY DEL, as four teams broke the 100-point mark after 52 regular-season games for the very first time.
Slow Start After Major Overhaul
The Red Bulls got off to a slow start in September. This came as no surprise, however, given the massive overhaul last summer. In addition to our new head coach Oliver David and our new assistant coach Rob Leask, we had to integrate twelve new players.
During the season, four more players joined the team: Antoine Bibeau, Alberts Smits, and the two young prospects Moritz Warnecke and Vadim Schreiner from the Red Bull Hockey Academy.
Red Bulls in Full Force Starting in November
Our newly formed team gradually began to gel, internalized the system more and more effectively, and improved tremendously. The team also handled the fact that several key players were sidelined for weeks at the end of last year with resilience. The team grew even closer and racked up win after win. Our best stretch came from late November through just before Christmas, with eight consecutive wins.
“We had a shaky start, but we really picked up momentum starting in November and also came out of the Olympic break very strong,” emphasized Winkler.
Defensive strength becomes a key factor
The main reason for this was, above all, our team’s strong defensive performance. Munich allowed only 126 goals; only Mannheim was even more solid (122). After a few weeks of settling in, our guys defended with tremendous compactness and were nearly unbeatable in many games starting in October.
At home, the Red Bulls were simply unbeatable in this statistic. In 26 home games, we conceded just 50 goals—not even two per game. This is not only an outstanding figure but also the clear league-wide record.
Our three goalies—Antoine Bibeau, Mathias Niederberger, and Simon Wolf—played a major role in this. Bibeau has recorded four shutouts and, statistically speaking, is the best goalie in the PENNY DEL alongside Cologne’s Janne Juvonen, with a goals-against average of 1.92 and a save percentage of 92.36 percent. Niederberger kept a clean sheet twice.
In total, we recorded six shutouts, including against top teams like Mannheim, Cologne, and Ingolstadt. Against the Adler and the Haie, we even managed to do this twice in a row, back-to-back.
Murphy fits in well, Hirose stands out
The players in front of our goalies also impressed. On defense, Ryan Murphy, in his first DEL season, ranks among the league’s most offensively potent defensemen. The Canadian, who joined us from Salzburg last summer, tallied 38 points (nine goals, 29 assists).
Up front, Taro Hirose really delivered. Our forward finished sixth in the league-wide scoring race with 54 points. His 45 assists are nothing short of outstanding. That mark is surpassed only by Nuremberg’s regular-season top scorer, Evan Barratt (65 points, 49 assists).
Balance is key
Munich’s top scorer is Jeremy McKenna with 17 goals, followed by Tobias Rieder and Chris DeSousa (16 each). However, the scoring load is spread across several players. A full ten Munich players scored in double digits—a feat matched only by the Kölner Haie.
Ville Pokka, Fabio Wagner, Yasin Ehliz, and Patrick Hager were always there. All four stars played in all 52 games of the regular season.
17 sellouts, the SAP Garden Fortress
Things are going exceptionally well at the SAP Garden this season; in its second year, our new home has become a true fortress. With 57 points and 20 wins, we are the second-best home team in the league. Especially from mid-October through December 23, the Red Bulls dominated the PENNY DEL at home, winning ten games in a row—an impressive winning streak.
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And the performances on the ice and the game-day experience at SAP Garden were duly rewarded. After all, fan interest was greater than ever before. As a result, our club can celebrate a new attendance record. We already set a record in our first season in our home arena with 264,573 fans; now, after 26 DEL home games—17 of which were sold out—we’ve reached 268,545 spectators. This brings our average up from 10,176 to 10,329 spectators per game, with an overall capacity utilization of 96 percent—three percent above the league average.
A huge thank you to all of you for this!
Three Highlights: Hager’s Anniversary, Championship Night, Record-Breaking Win
There are three home games we want and need to highlight here. First, the 3-2 victory on October 23 against the Eisbären Berlin. This game was all about our captain. Patrick Hager took the ice in front of the home crowd, his family, and numerous friends as only the 13th professional ever to play in his 1,000th DEL game. What a number!
1,000 DEL games: Congratulations, Patrick Hager!
// JUBILÄUM
Things took a nostalgic turn on March 6 against the Grizzlys Wolfsburg. Ten years after we won our first championship in club history against the team from Lower Saxony, most of our 2016 championship squad—along with the coaching staff—were in attendance. In front of some of the title heroes from back then—including David Leggio, Florian Kettemer, Michael Wolf, Frank Mauer, Mads Christensen, and Jason Jaffray—the current Red Bulls prevailed 4-1 on this special evening.
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Das Heimspiel gegen Wolfsburg in Bildern (06.03.2026)
While the first two highlights were expected, the third one was not really on the horizon. But it really made an impact! On March 13, we celebrated our biggest DEL victory in club history with a stunning 10-1 win in the derby against the Straubing Tigers, of all teams. It was also the first time we’d scored ten goals since joining Germany’s top league.
Bavarian Championship Title Goes to Munich
With their historic derby triumph over the Tigers, the Red Bulls also cemented their Bavarian championship title. The numbers against our rivals this season speak for themselves. In 16 matchups against Ingolstadt, Straubing, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, we emerged victorious in 13 games, earning 38 points with a goal differential of +32. This clearly relegated the Ingolstadt team (32 points) to second place.
Highlights: EHC Red Bull München vs. Straubing Tigers (13.03.2026)
// DEL - HIGHLIGHTS
“Going all out”
The “most exciting” time of the year kicks off on March 24 with the playoff quarterfinal series against none other than Ingolstadt. And now we want to bring our fifth DEL title back to the Bavarian capital. “Ingolstadt is a top-tier team,” emphasized Christian Winkler, adding: “Now we need to sharpen everything up one last time. And then, of course, we’ll go all out.” The record against the Panthers in the regular season looks promising so far; the Red Bulls won three out of four matchups.
Starting at 8:15 p.m.: Neville Rautert on “Sport Arena” on münchen.tv// NEWS
A rematch of the 2023 DEL Finals: The Red Bulls face Ingolstadt in the quarterfinals// NEWS
Red Bulls to Host Playoff Quarterfinals – All the Details on When Ticket Sales Begin// TICKETS