Title favorite EHC Red Bull Munich started the playoff semi-finals of the German Ice Hockey League confidently against the Grizzlies Wolfsburg.
Coach Don Jackson’s team clinched the first of the four wins in the best-of-seven series needed to progress 5-2 (2-0, 2-2, 1-0).
“You have to be there from the start. Otherwise you don’t have a chance here,” said Grizzly striker Gerrit Fauser on “MagentaSport”.
The cornerstone for the deserved EHC success was a strong early phase in which the rested main round winner shot from all positions.
Munich gets off to a flying start
The Wolfsburg, who only reached the semi-finals on Wednesday with a win in the seventh quarter-finals in Straubing, found their way into the game late.
“We wanted to come out like the fire brigade. We managed that quite well,” summed up national striker Maximilian Kastner, who scored a goal (28th minute). Trevor Parkes (2nd), Emil Johansson (7th), Andreas Eder (29th) and Yasin Ehliz (54th) also scored.
For the Grizzlies, who are in a DEL semi-final for the third time in a row, Matthew Lorito (23rd) and officially Fauser (40th) were successful. In the second Wolfsburg goal, however, national goalkeeper Matthias Niederberger made an unfortunate mistake when he put the puck in the net himself. However, there are no official own goals in ice hockey.
The series continues in Wolfsburg on Sunday (1:15 p.m. / MagentaSport).
Mannheim shocks Ingolstadt
ERC Ingolstadt lost 1:3 (0:0, 1:0, 0:3) to Adler Mannheim at the start.
In the duel between the second and third placed after the main round, Ingolstadt looked like a home win for a long time, the lead after Tye McGinn’s 1:0 (21st) lasted well into the last third.
Eight minutes before the end, however, Ryan MacInnes shocked Oberbayern with the equalizer before Lean Bergmann gave the Adler the lead (58th). Just a minute later, an empty netter from Stefan Loibl sealed the important away win.
Game two takes place on Sunday (4:30 p.m. / MagentaSport) in Mannheim.