Main round winner Red Bull Munich started the semi-final series of the DEL with an unchallenged victory against the Grizzlys Wolfsburg. The Adler Mannheim also won – although Ingolstadt had looked like the winner for a long time.
Munich defeated the Wolfsburg Grizzlies 5-2 (2-0, 2-2, 1-0) on their own ice and thus took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Trevor Parks (2nd) and Emil Johansson (7th) provided the early lead for Munich, who dominated the first third at will.
Duel in the playoffs
Maximilian Kastner (28th) and Andreas Eder (30th) then scored more goals in the middle third. Matt Lorito (22nd) and Gerrit Fauser (40th) scored for the Grizzlies. Wolfsburg was now much more present and powerful.
In the final third, not much happened in front of the gates for a long time before Yasin Ehliz put the lid on it with the fifth goal for Munich (54th).
Munich against the Grizzlies is an evergreen in the playoffs for the German championship in recent years. Last year there was also a duel between the two teams in the semi-finals and ended with a sweep: After three games and three wins, the Munich team were in the final.
Mannheim also takes the lead
The Adler Mannheim also won the first game of the semi-final series. At 3:1 (0:0, 0:1, 3:0) ERC Ingolstadt had led through a goal by Tye McGinn (21st) into the final phase, but then failed to score a second goal.
Instead, the eagles struck three times. Ryan McInnis (52nd), Lean Bergmann (58th) and Stefan Loibl (59th) made three goals from three chances and made it 1-0 in the series.
| pairing | game 1 | game 2 | game 3 | game 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Munich – Wolfsburg | 5:2 | 02.04. | 04.04. | 06.04. |
Ingolstadt-Mannheim | 1:3 | 02.04. | 04.04. | 06.04. |