Top favorite Red Bull Munich made a false start in the playoff quarterfinals of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL).
The winner of the main round surprisingly lost his home game 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. / MagentaSport), four wins are necessary to advance.
Second in the table, ERC Ingolstadt, on the other hand, recorded a hard-fought home win: The Schanzer defeated the Düsseldorfer EG 5:4 (1:0, 1:3, 2:1, 0:0, 1:0) in the second overtime. Fabio Wagner scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute.
In front of 4832 visitors, 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.
Ingolstadt forces the extension
“We did a lot of things right, but didn’t take our chances,” said Munich captain Patrick Hager. “But we won’t let that drive us crazy.”
DEG top scorer Philip Gogulla scored the guests in front of 4026 spectators in Ingolstadt shortly before the end of regular time with his second goal of the evening, his 33rd play-off 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.