“Nothing to complain about today”said Haie captain Moritz Müller with satisfaction after the game. “We wanted to close the sack today. We are cool stayed after the first third because we knew the moment would come when we could get back into the game. There’s always a bit of luck in the end, but we’ve earned it lately.”
Decisive goal with luck””
Luck was there because the puck at the decisive goal by Matsumoto in the tenth minute of extra time from the Ingolstadts’ skate Colton Jobke went into the gate. Actually wanted to Matsumoto namely cross.
But as Müller said, the Haie have worked their way up to luck over the past week. Basically, coach Uwe Krupp’s team played a messed-up main round. In the meantime, the Haie even lost ten games in a row. Until shortly before the end of the main round, very few in Cologne had the playoffs thought. Instead, the sharks even had to deal with a possible relegation. Numerous corona infections and injured service providers were the reasons for this.
Three wins in the final spurt of the season
Just in time for the end of the season, Krupp was finally able to draw on his full potential again and promptly there were three victories from the last three main round games, including an impressive 9:1 against the direct playoff-Competitors Bietigheim Steelers. In the end, the Haie secured tenth place and thus the last place pre-playoff-Place.
Instead of being in the DEL 2, the people of Cologne are now in the middle of the fight for the championship. But the next task will be anything but easy. Opponents are the Eisbären Berlin, Uwe Krupp’s former team and first-placed in the main round. In the regular season, the Haie lost all four games against the capital city, the last meeting in February even with 1:7. Game one takes place on Sunday (2 p.m.) in Berlin.