DEL weekend recap
24 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende
Mannheim and Berlin with clear victories. While München and Nürnberg were the biggest winners of the weekend, Hannover and Straubing lost ground.
Friday: Adler Mannheim received Krefeld Pinguine for the top duel and went away with a surprisingly high result of 6-2. The key for the success was a 5-0 lead after the first period already. Jochen Hecht for Mannheim and Richard Pavlikovsky each had two goals.
In another highly-anticipated game league leaders Kölner Haie received DEL record champions Eisbären Berlin. Despite an early lead through Charlie Stephens, the Sharks had to see how Danish international Mads Christensen turned around the result still in the first period with a double. James Sharrow and Daniel Brière scored the other goals for a solid 4-1 away win by Berlin.
Bottom side Düsseldorger EG saved a point in their home match against the Nürnberg Ice Tigers. James Pollock had brought the guests in front at the end of the middle period before Justin Bostrom tied the match at 44:04. After a scoreless overtime it was Yasin Ehliz who transformed the decisive penalty shot attempt to give Nürnberg the extra point.
David Wolf and Jerome Flaake (empty net) were the decisive men in the 2-0 win of Hamburg Freezers against Augsburger Panther. Freezers goalie Niklas Treutle had 22 saves and a shutout.
Even closer the result was in Wolfsburg when the local Grizzly Adams defeated the Iserlohn Roosters with a goal by Greg Moore at 44:50 only. With a total of 26 saves Daniar Dshunussow earned himself a shutout in the Wolfsburg net.
When Straubing received Munich for another Bavarian derby the middle period pathed the way for the guest win who grabbed a 5-2 lead. Daniel Sparre and Karl Stewart cut the lead to just one in the last 20 minutes but even after pulling out their goalie for an additional attacker Straubing couldn't turn around the game anymore.
ERC Ingolstadt was able to beat the Hannover Scorpions in a close match. Joe Motzko (Ingolstadt) and Ivan Ciernik (Hannover) scored for a 1-1 tie after the first period before John Laliberte and Derek Hahn let the hosts run away with a two-goal lead in the last 20 minutes. A late goal for Hannover by Christoph Herperger made it 3-2 at 58:42 but Jared Ross finnished the hopes of the guests for points with his empty netter at 59:46.
Sunday: Kölner Haie gained a 3-1 home win against Iserlohn to stay in touch with the new league leaders from Mannheim. Brett Breitkreuz opened the score for the hosts at 07:03 before Michael Wolf scored a shorthander at the end of the middle period. Andreas Falk and again Brett Breitkreuz - this time with an empty netter - were the ones to give all three points to the home side.
Mannheim defended their first place in the league table by beating the Hannover Scorpions with 4-1. Jochen Hecht with a double, Jason Pominville and Dennis Seidenberg - all three are lockout players - pathed the way for the win with a four-goal lead. David Sulkovsky only could score the consolation goal for Hannover at 53:54.
For Straubing the journey to Berlin had more of a horror trip than of a hockey game. In front of a sold-out O2 World (14,200 fans) the Bavarians received a terrible 8-0 loss. The Polar Bears not only showed their scoring abilities but also how good all four lines work as they had 7 diffrent goal scorers and only Constantin Braun scored twice. Rob Zepp made 29 saves for a shutout.
Despite a 1-3 deficit after 40 minutes - Matt Dzieduszycki had scored a double for the guests from Wolfsburg - hosts Krefeld Pinguine earned all three points on Sunday against the Grizzly Adams. With a strike while being in a 5 on 3 power play Francois Methot gave the start for a fast come back only at 53:07. Mark Voakes scored a double to give Krefeld the lead for the first time until 58:51 before Andreas Driendl used an empty netter to make everything clear.
Sven Butenschön and Yasin Ehliz gave Nürnberg twice a lead that was in the end enough for a 2-1 win against the Hamburg Freezers. For the guests fromer NHL star Christoph Schubert had scored the equalizer in between.
After laying behind 1-2 and 2-3 a double by Kyle Helms and Derek Whitmore during the 57th minute was enough to give hosts Augsburger Panther all three points against their Bavarian rivals ERC Ingolstadt.
EHC München left the bottom side Düsseldorfer EG no chance during their 4-1 home win. Martin Buchwieser, Blake Sloan, Sören Sturm and Mike Kompon had made it a four-goal advantage already before Ashton Rome scored the consolation goal for the guests.
Winners and losers: Mannheim had two easy wins to regain the lead in the table while Eisbären Berlin with six points and 12-1 goals made a jump towards the 4th position. Also EHC München (6 pts) and Nürnberg Ice Tigers (5 pts) were able to improve their situation by getting 4-5 points advantage towards the non-playoff spots. Hannover Scorpions lost some points towards the top-6 spots after two losses in regulation. The losers of the weekend are the Straubing Tigers who couldn't stop their losing streak and fell out of these playoff spots. Für the last in the table from Düsseldorf an 18-point deficit towards Nürnberg already means no playoffs if nothing sensational happens.