The Fischtown Pinguins gave top favorite EHC Munich a surprising home defeat in the first quarterfinal game of the DEL playoffs.
The winner of the main round lost his home game on Wednesday (03/15/2023) against the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven 1:3 (0:0, 0:1, 1:2). Game two of the best-of-seven series will be played in Bremerhaven on Friday (7.30 p.m./live ticker on sportschau.de), four wins are necessary to progress.
Goalie Franzreb outstanding
The Munich team bit their teeth on the strong guest goalkeeper Maxi Franzreb. Ross Mauermann scored with the skate blade to give Bremerhaven the lead (29′), Markus Vikingstad increased the lead to 2-0 at the beginning of the final period (42′). Austin Ortega only managed to get back the goal (58′), Vikingstad hit the empty goal with 24 seconds to go.
“We did a lot of things right, but didn’t take our chances”said Munich’s captain Patrick Hager, “But we won’t let that drive us crazy.”
Ingolstadt meets in the second extension
Second in the table, ERC Ingolstadt, on the other hand, recorded a hard-fought home win: The “Schanzer” beat Düsseldorfer EG 5:4 (1:0, 1:3, 2:1, 0:0, 1:0) in the second overtime through. Fabio Wagner scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute.
DEG top scorer Philip Gogulla scored the guests in front of 4,026 spectators in Ingolstadt shortly before the end of the regular season with his second goal of the evening, his 33rd playoff goal (55th), with a 4:3 lead.
But Ingolstadt’s double goal scorer Ty Ronning forced the extra time (58th). Previously, Mirko Höfflin (11th), Charles Bertrand (26th) and Ronning (53rd) for the ERC and Gogulla (21st), Mikko Kousa (35th) and Captain Alex Barta (37th) for the DEG had scored. The three referees had to continue after just a few minutes because linesman Joshua Römer was out with a hand injury.