After the second defeat in the quarterfinals of the DEL playoffs, EHC Munich is threatened with an early end. Düsseldorf also lost again. Mannheim and Wolfsburg have balanced their series.
The top favorite Red Bull Munich is threatened with an early end in the playoffs of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). After the 1:3 home defeat at the start, the winner of the main round also lost the second quarterfinals at the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven with 2:3 (0:0, 2:1, 0:2) and is in the “best of seven” series with 0 :2 back. On Sunday (3.15 p.m.) the team of DEL record coach Don Jackson has home advantage again.
Goals from Filip Varejcka (37′) and Austin Ortega (40′) gave Munich a 2-1 lead at the start of the final period. But Antti Tyrväinen (45th) and Phillip Bruggisser (49th) turned the game around in favor of Bremerhaven, bottom of the table.
Ingolstadt also wins game two
Second in the table, ERC Ingolstadt, on the other hand, took a big step towards the semi-finals with a 3-1 (1-0, 0-0, 2-1) win at Düsseldorfer EG. The 2014 champions are still two wins short of progressing.
Leon Hüttl (12th) and Mathew Bodie (53rd) gave Ingolstadt a 2-0 lead in front of 9,839 spectators in Düsseldorf. The goal from Alexander Ehl (57th) was not enough for DEG, Justin Feser (60th) hit the empty goal.
Mannheim and Wolfsburg equal series
The other quarter-finals are completely open: The Grizzlys Wolfsburg equalized with a 3:1 (0:0, 1:0, 2:1) against the Straubing Tigers. After losing 3-5 on Tuesday, the Grizzlies hit back at home.
Gerrit Fauser scored the first goal of the game just before the end of the second period (40′). In a hard-fought final phase, Straubing was able to equalize through Travis Turnbull (54th), but Wolfsburg only had the last word through Trevor Mingoia (57th) and finally Spencer Machacek (60th).
With a 2-1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1) win at the Kölner Haie, the Adler Mannheim redeemed themselves from the 4-0 defeat during the week. In a game that was extremely tough from the start, penalties rained down and there was hardly any flow of play. However, Mannheim coped better with that and scored the lead through Taro Jentzsch with a majority (15′). As the game progressed, it was a little less nickel-y. Ryan MacInnis scored for the Eagles early in the final third (42′).
Nick Baptiste’s goal came too late for Cologne when goalkeeper Pantkowski was already taken off the ice.