Defending champion Eisbären Berlin has received a surprising home defeat in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). The league leaders lost 3: 4 (1: 1, 2: 1, 0: 2) to the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, but remains the undisputed leader in the league, which is increasingly affected by corona worries. Nuremberg’s Ryan Stoa decided the game with a three-pack (28th, 46th, 51st) practically single-handedly.
The first pursuer of the polar bears are now the Adler Mannheim, who pushed themselves to second place in the table with a 4: 3 (1: 1, 3: 1, 0: 1) against the relegation-threatened Schwenninger Wild Wings on Sunday evening.
Because four DEL teams are currently completely (Red Bull Munich, Iserlohn Roosters, Grizzlys Wolfsburg) or to a large extent (Bietigheim Steelers) in quarantine, only three games could go on as planned on matchday 41.
Nuremberg’s sports director Stefan Ustorf had recently expressed serious doubts about a fair competition. “The sporting fairness in the DEL, in the DEL2, in the upper league – it’s over,” said Ustorf in an interview with “MagentaSport”.
In addition, the 48-year-old does not expect the season to end as planned. It will be “very difficult for everyone involved” to play a full season. Ustorf is open to the idea of shortening the quarantine for asymptomatic professional athletes: “If it makes sense in terms of health and has been scientifically tested by doctors, then gladly.”
League boss Gernot Tripcke said in the face of the crisis: “First without spectators, now without players – that’s not really fun. We fight to the last.”
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