Tigers advance to Quarterfinals
The Straubing Tigers are the 7th DEL team to qualify for the quarterfinals. On friday evening they defeated Ingolstadt at home with 2-1 in overtime. Mannheim and Köln will go to game 3.
Straubing Tigers vs ERC Ingolstadt 2-1
OT, series 2-0
Ingolstadt with their backs against the
wall after the loss at home came out fighting their hearts out and
since Straubing was also playing a physical game, the puck got moved
up and down the ice a lot. With 17:43 minutes off the clock Dustin
Friesen received the puck on the right wing during a fast break and
could beat Matt Climie in Straubing's goal to give Ingolstadt a
deserved lead.
In the second period the game shifted
back and forth. First Straubing pushed towards the equalizer and
suddenly Ingolstadt was on top again. Another goal was not added.
The last period saw Straubing
pressuring all over the place, but Timo Pielmeier played a terrific
game in Ingolstadt's net. It needed a really weird billiard goal by
Steven Zalewski to beat him with 2 minutes to go and force overtime.
This changed momentum. In overtime
Maury Edwards could bring home the series for Straubing with his
second playoff goal. With the 2-1 win over Ingolstadt, a team they
had 12 consecutive regulation losses against bafore this series,
Straubing made its way to the quarter finals.
Adler Mannheim vs Kölner Haie 5-2,
series 1-1
The physical element was as present in
the first period in Mannheim as in Straubing, but both teams learned
from their mistakes in game 1 and focused on defense. Köln had two
powerplays in the first frame, which went by without being a big threat to
Mannheim's goal.
Those missed opportunities should come
back to haunt Köln, when Mannheim turned up the heat in the second
period and gave the game a decisive turn. Jon Rheault on the
powerplay, Christoph Ullmann, Matthew Lashoff and Jochen Hecht
managed to get a 4-0 lead on the board before Köln finally converted
a powerply through Johannes Salmonsson with 20 seconds left before
the last break.
The last period could not bring any
significant changes to the score. Ullmann scored his second goal of
the night and Dragan Umicevic added another one for the Sharks. With
the 5-2 win Mannheim evened the series. Both teams will meet on
sunday for a last game.