The Rhenish rivals Kölner Haie and Düsseldorfer EG have the quarter-finals of the German Ice Hockey League in mind.
Cologne, who only qualified at the last minute on Sunday, defeated ERC Ingolstadt 4:3 (1:1, 2:1, 1:1) in the first game of the pre-playoffs.
DEG won 3-2 (2-0, 1-2, 0-0) against the Nuremberg Ice Tigers without their coach Harold Kreis, who had traveled to Canada because of a family emergency.
In front of 10,091 spectators, the Haie took an early lead through Maxi Kammerer (3rd). After a mistake by national team captain Moritz Müller, who had prepared the 1-0, Ingolstadt quickly equalized through Tim McGauley (6th). Müller made up for his faux pas with a power play goal (28′), Alexander Oblinger followed up (32′).
The weakened guests shortened by Mirko Höfflin (35th). Landon Ferraro deflected a shot from Müller to make it 4-2 (52′), before ex-Cologne player Jerome Flaake made the final phase exciting again (55′).
Dream start paves the way for DEG
In Nuremberg, Kyle Cumiskey (3rd) and Stephen Macaulay (12th) gave DEG a 2-0 lead, with Thomas Dolak and Daniel Kreutzer commanding the boards.
Only 54 seconds after Daniel Schmölz’s goal (24th), ex-Nuremberg player Daniel Fischbuch restored the two-goal gap in front of 3479 visitors (25th). Marko Friedrich brought the hosts closer again (29th).
The second games of the two best-of-three series will take place on Thursday (7:30 p.m.) in Düsseldorf and Ingolstadt, two wins are necessary to advance. The quarterfinals begin next Sunday.