Defending champion Red Bull Munich responded to the ups and downs of the past few weeks with an impressive home win in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). Coach Toni Söderholm’s team won against direct rivals Schwenninger Wild Wings 7:3 (3:0, 4:0, 0:3) on Thursday evening, underlining their ambitions for direct play-off qualification.
Munich (75 points), which has had repeated defeats recently, moved within one point of Schwenningen, which occupies fourth place in the table. Munich and Wolfsburg’s Grizzlys are tied for fifth and sixth positions, with only the best six making it straight into the play-offs.
Wolfsburg suffered a painful defeat at the Adler Mannheim on Thursday, in the end it was 4:6 (2:1, 0:3, 2:2). The Eagles (71 points) are eighth and are safely in the ranks for the pre-play-offs and can now attack the top six again.
In the fight for the last places for the pre-play-offs, ERC Ingolstadt scored a very important 4:3 (2:0, 1:2, 0:1, 1:0) after extra time against Düsseldorfer EG. Ingolstadt (63) is ninth, Düsseldorf (55) would just make it into the preliminary round of the play-offs in tenth place.