The game of first against last clearly goes to the favorites from Cologne. The Haie also seal Dresden’s sporting decline.
At the restart after the Olympic break, the Kölner Haie, as confident league leaders, hosted the lagging bottom team from Dresden. The game ended as the signs suggested: with a resounding victory for Cologne. In the end it was 7:2 (2:0, 5:1, 0:1) from the point of view of the leaders. Since the Löwen Frankfurt also won their game against Bremerhaven at the same time, Dresden has already been relegated seven match days before the end of the main round.
The first third was relatively even and started with a first chance for the guests. Austin Ortega put the puck sharply at the second post, where Trevor Parkes narrowly missed the puck.
After that, the sharks took over command, but it wasn’t really dangerous at first. First Dominik Bokk narrowly missed the puck, but the Dresden goalie was there when Robin van Calster tried. After six minutes the Sharks were outnumbered for the first time. Although the guests established themselves in the final third, they couldn’t get the disc over the line.
Dresden tried hard, Cologne ice cold
And that’s exactly where the big difference between the two teams became apparent: the Sharks are simply mercilessly efficient this season. With only their second good chance, the league leaders took the lead after nine minutes: Tanner Kero slightly deflected Brady Austin’s shot and directed it into the net to make it 1-0.
Oliwer Kaski caused danger again with a slap shot from the center, but in the end the target just missed the goal. The insecurity from the last eight defeats in a row was now becoming more and more apparent to the Dresden team, even if they could not be blamed for their fighting spirit. But Cologne simply had the luck of the brave. Ryan MacInnis scored 2-0 when he was outnumbered – with this result going into the first third break.
Birthday boy Schnarr with a double pack
In the second section, the Haie put pressure on again – and were rewarded twice for it. After 24 minutes, Kero pushed the puck past Juho Olkinuora into the goal, and just a minute later, Nate Schnarr celebrated his 27th birthday with his goal. Although it’s 4-0 Ice hockey There was still a lot of catching up to do, but there wasn’t much going in Dresden’s favor at this point.
The Ice Lions increased their offensive efforts again, but Janne Juvonen proved to be a reliable support on several occasions. The Cologne goalkeeper was able to prevail again and again in one-on-one situations. After 29 minutes, the Haie also got their first power play, but did unusually little with it.
The first goal for the guests came in the 33rd minute: Ricardo Hendreschke’s shot slipped past Juvonen to make it 1-4. But Dresden’s joy didn’t last long. Even before the siren, Louis-Marc Aubry, in the majority, restored the old distance, Patrick Russell and Schnarr again increased the result. Dresden was now just running behind and could only hope that Frankfurt didn’t also win in the parallel game.
There is no support – Dresden is relegated
The final third started with a goal for the Ice Lions: Trevor Parkes reduced the score to 2:7. But that didn’t shock the sharks much. As a result, the aluminum alone prevented van Calster and Storm from scoring Cologne’s eighth goal.
The front runner continued to run and the Saxons could hardly break free. In the end, Dresden survived the final third without conceding a goal – it was of no use to them. In Cologne the game had long since been decided and the Bremerhaven team didn’t provide any help. They lost 1:4 in Frankfurt, which meant that Dresden was relegated. In Cologne, on the other hand, the ice hockey world is more than fine despite the recently broken record series.
The sharks will continue on Friday. Then the ERC Ingolstadt comes to the Cologne Arena at home. Bully is at 7:30 p.m.
Our source:
- DEL game Kölner Haie against Löwen Frankfurt on February 25th, 2026 (live broadcast on MagentaSport)
Broadcast: WDR.de“Haie victory means Dresden’s sporting relegation”, February 25, 2026, 9:58 p.m
