Second home win, second tight box. The Dresden Ice Lions sent a sign of life from the bottom of the table on Penance and Prayer Day and beat the Schwenninger Wild Wings after overtime.
Head coach Niklas Sundblad’s team won 4:3 (1:0, 0:1, 2:2, 1:0) after extra time against the Neckarstadt team. Schwenningen was just a guest in Florence on the Elbe last Friday, was just ahead there. This time the Ice Lions took revenge, with Austin Ortega becoming the match winner with two goals.
Turnbull ends the Ice Lions’ goal drought
The hosts had big plans and wanted to achieve a sense of achievement after two goalless games. The game looked good for a long time – until it went into the dangerous zone. There was too little pressure in front of the Wild Wings’ goal, a shot from Andrew Yogan past the goal (15th) was the Eislöwen’s best opportunity. Until a minute later, Tomas Andres had a flash of inspiration and found the completely free Travis Turnbull with a wonderful diagonal pass, who only had to push into the open goal (16th). After more than 170 minutes of play, another goal for Dresden and, after two shutouts in a row, a goal for Schwenningen. The Wild Wings had a third to forget, but were ultimately happy that Dresden could not develop a significantly greater goal threat from their superiority.
Travis Turnbull (Dresdner Eisloewen, 91)
Wild Wings turn up the heat and try to equalize
Schwenningen started the middle third with a big chest. But the home team had their first big chance, but Rourke Chartier was only able to get a rebound from a tight angle onto the post (24th minute). In a fair game without any major interruptions, it took until the 31st minute before the first penalty was given. Ortega caught his opponent in the face with the trowel, and Dresden was twice outnumbered by two minutes – Benjamin Martin was injured. The ESC defended the Wild Wings power play strongly and hardly allowed any situations. But at the moment when the Ice Lions were complete again, the disc in front of the box slipped onto the blade of Hakon Hänelt, who scored to equalize (35th). Deserved goal and deserved result up to that point, considering the Wild Wings had significantly more shots. But Dresden had the next big chance in the section. Ortega missed from close range on Michael Bitzer, who parried brilliantly, and Chartier also failed in the follow-up shot against the goalie (38th). The final third was balanced.
Four goals in the final third, Ortega with the match winner
The guests then took the lead with a shot from Dominik Bittner (45th), which hit directly in the crease of the Dresden goal. Shortly afterwards the shooter had to come off the ice, the Ice Lions had the first majority of the game. But as so often this season, the power play wasn’t good and it looked like nothing would come of it. Shortly before the end of the two minutes, Austin Ortega (49th) scored from close range to equalize. The hall was there, Dresden was pushing for its first win in its own hall in the regular season.
Austin Ortega was the hero of the evening in Dresden with two goals.
But instead the guests took the lead: Dresden couldn’t get the puck out of the back, Kyle Platzer used a pass from Phil Hungerecker through the legs of Jussi Olkinuora (56th) to make it 2-3. The Ice Lions, however, with morale, equalized just 43 seconds later. Andrew Yogan actually wanted to find Trevor Parkes, a Schwenninger held the trowel between them, 3:3. It went into overtime, in which Ortega became the match winner with his second goal from a tight angle.
With one game more, Dresden is still in last place in the table, two points behind Iserlohn. The Roosters will be on the Elbe next Wednesday. Before that, the Eislöwen have to play in Mannheim on Friday evening and against Wolfsburg on Sunday. SPORT IM EAST ticks all games live.
After the game, Niklas Sundblad spoke of the “best first third” of the season.
Sundblad thanks the fans
The Eislöwen coach was also satisfied: “We started the game very well, showed our best first third and scored the important opening goal,” said Niklas Sundblad. “We came under a lot of pressure in the second third, but we fought back and showed character. The win is good for us and gives us self-confidence. The atmosphere was great from the start – thank you very much for that!”
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MDR TELEVISION | MDR current | November 19, 2025 | 7:30 p.m
