Impressive use of championship match point: Eisbären Berlin successfully defended their DEL title in a gripping series of finals and crowned themselves with the German ice hockey crown for the ninth time with a gala.
Coach Serge Aubin’s team won the fourth play-off final game 5-0 (1-0, 3-0, 1-0) at Red Bull Munich on Wednesday evening and decided the best-of-five series 3-1 for themselves.
Hat-trick scorer Matthew White (9th, 37th, 60th), Frans Nielsen (25th) and national player Leonhard Pföderl (26th) shot the mercilessly effective DEL record champion in front of an atmospheric backdrop with 5533 spectators in Munich’s Olympic Ice Stadium to the title . In the eyes of Julian Nagelsmann, FC Bayern’s champion coach, the hosts were more than equal for long stretches. But Munich repeatedly despaired of the brilliant national goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger.
“It’s important to regenerate well in order to be ready mentally and physically,” Aubin said before the fifth Berlin game in seven days – but his team had major problems with brisk Munich players at the start of the game. Ben Smith and Filip Varejcka missed the very early lead for the hosts in a dangerous double chance (2nd).
Berlin initially found no remedy against the Red Bulls’ aggressive forechecking, but then took the lead out of nowhere: White broke through on the right and scored to make it 1-0. The game now became more open, Austin Ortega missed the equalizer from a short distance in the Munich power play (15th).
As in the three previous duels, both teams gave nothing. Munich got better into the middle third and slowly struggled with the exploitation of chances. The polar bears were completely different, paving the way to the title with a double strike: first Nielsen scored from close range, then Pöderl made the preliminary decision with a long-range shot.
Bayern, who had turned a 3-0 deficit into a win in game one of the final series, never recovered from the two hits and even had to accept White’s final decision before the second break.
The last third was a show for the Berliners in front of the numerous fans who had traveled with them, Marcel Noebels failed at the post (49th). But Munich never gave up.