League leader Red Bull Munich has ended its earnings crisis in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). After the last three defeats, the runners-up won 4-3 (0-0, 3-2, 1-1) at defending champions Eisbären Berlin on Friday evening. While Munich are still comfortably at the top, the Berliners, who are 13th in the table, had to. suffer the next major setback in the play-off race.
After a poor start third, both last year’s finalists came back on the ice hungry for goals. The polar bears countered the double strike of the leader, but only twelve seconds after the 2:2 equalizer, Yasin Ehliz (40th) put Don Jackson’s away team in the lead again. In the “crunch time” Christopher Desousa (57th) increased decisively, Kevin Clark’s goal three seconds before the final siren came too late.
New second in the table is ERC Ingolstadt, who, thanks to a 5:3 (3:0, 0:3, 2:0) at the Schwenninger Wild Wings, overtook Adler Mannheim with the same number of points. Meanwhile, the Düsseldorfer EG extended their winning streak to four games. In the NRW duel against the Iserlohn Roosters, DEG won 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 1-0) and defended fifth place in the play-off.
The Kölner Haie lost after four wins in a row. The Rhinelanders lost 2-0 (0-1, 0-0, 0-1) to the Grizzlies Wolfsburg and slipped down to eighth place. At the bottom of the table, the Augsburg Panthers celebrated an 8:2 (4:0, 3:2, 1:0) thrashing of bottom-placed Bietigheim Steelers. While Bietigheim has little chance of staying up in the league, the air for Augsburg is thin despite the rout. The Eisbären Berlin on the saving bank are still clearly ahead.