ERC Ingolstadt

Glen Goodall's number still hangs from the rafters at the Saturn-Arena. Doug Ast and Jimmy Waite hang there too.

The Panthers went up through the Regionalliga in 1979 and the Oberliga Süd in 1987, then ran into money trouble in 1989 that dropped them all the way to the Landesliga. The bounce back to the 2. Liga Süd came in 1996, and by 2002 they were in the DEL. The lockout of 2004-05 brought Andy McDonald and Jamie Langenbrunner through Ingolstadt on their way back to the NHL.

That build-up paid off in 2014, when Ingolstadt went into the playoffs as the ninth seed and came out with the championship, beating Kölner Haie over seven games — still the club's high point. A year later, and in seasons since, the story against Kölner Haie has had a rougher edge too; the 2006 brawl between the two sides is remembered locally as the "Battle of Cologne."

Derby weekends against Red Bull München and Straubing Tigers still carry the old Bavarian lines — Oberbayern against Niederbayern, big city against Audi's home town. Captain Fabio Wagner leads the current group, with the Saturn-Arena's 4,815 seats and standing room filling for whichever of those meetings comes round next.