Defending champions Eisbären Berlin and Red Bull Munich have presented at the start of the semi-finals in the playoffs of the German Ice Hockey League.
The Eisbären defeated the Adler Mannheim 4:3 (2:1, 1:1, 0:1, 1:0) after extra time and celebrated their first win, as did Munich, the runner-up Grizzlys Wolfsburg at 5:1 (2:0, 2:0, 1:1) gave no chance.
Three successes are necessary to move into the final.
In Berlin Manuel Wiederer (72nd) let the polar bears celebrate with his goal in extra time. The champions got off to a dream start and took the lead with goals from Giovanni Fiore (8th) and Jonas Müller (12th).
Former NHL pro Andrew Desjardins (18th) and Jason Bast (23rd) equalized. The Eisbären countered with Yannick Veilleux (34′), Tim Wohlgemuth (47′) brought Mannheim into overtime.
“It was a typical playoff game, everything was possible. Mannheim is a strong team, the series will remain very tight. We had to work hard,” said Berlin’s Blaine Byron on “MagentaSport”.
Mannheim’s Matthias Plachta said: “In the beginning there was a lack of intensity, the first ten minutes weren’t good, even though we came back again.”
Hager kills the grizzlies
Munich set an exclamation mark right at the beginning of the series with a dominant first appearance and thanks to the very strong Patrick Hager.
The Olympic silver medalist from Pyeongchang scored twice (13th, 23rd) and made it 4-0 through Konrad Abeltshauser (36th). Ben Street (17th) and Ben Smith (42nd) were also successful.
The second duels are scheduled for Friday (7:30 p.m. / MagentaSport). Mannheim and Wolfsburg then each have home games. The polar bears and Munich had finished the regular season in the first two places.