The Adler Mannheim got back on track on foreign ice and underlined their claim to a place in the playoff finals of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). The co-favourites won the tight third game of the semi-final series at ERC Ingolstadt 2-1 (0-0, 2-1, 0-0) and took the lead again: After two away wins and one home defeat, the Eagles are 2-1 .
However, four victories are required to get into the final in the best-of-seven series, it continues on Thursday (7:15 p.m. / MagentaSport) in Mannheim.
In a balanced duel, no goals were scored in the first third, an outstanding move then gave Ingolstadt the lead: from a tight position behind their own goal, the ERC combined into the opposing half, Stefan Matteau (27th) completed the goal.
However, the goal scorer had not yet been announced when the Eagles had already equalized. Matthias Plachta (27th) scored just 18 seconds later to make it 1-1. Before the third break, Jordan Szwarz (35th) used a power play to give Mannheim the lead.
The Adler had to do without David Wolf on Tuesday evening, the suspended striker can only intervene again in a possible sixth game of the series: In game two (3: 6) he lost his nerve and wildly hit Ingolstadt’s Daniel Pietta.
Wolfsburg wins in Munich
For Munich, on the other hand, it was the next setback. The winner of the main round lost 3:5 (0:0, 2:4, 1:1) to the Grizzlys Wolfsburg in their own hall, after the win at the start it was the second defeat in a row.
In Munich, the favorite increasingly despaired of the tough opponent. The Wolfsburg blocked countless shots on the defensive and at the same time showed themselves to be ice-cold offensively.
Spencer Machacek (23’/50′), Trevor Mingoia (29′), Dustin Jeffrey (34′) and Tyler Morley (39′) scored for the Grizzlies. At best, Munich could be satisfied with its power play record. Yasin Ehliz (38′) and Zachary Redmond (45′) each scored in the majority, and Christopher Desousa (40′) also provided hope in the meantime.