DEL – Two and a half Derbys

05 Oct 2013 | Markus Nisius

Derby time in the DEL on Friday. A couple of games saw teams of the same region facing off for the predominance on their home soil or let’s say home ice. While that was the center of attention for most fans, Nürnberg could set a new start record in the DEL.

Red Bull München for example could finally get back on track with a dominant game against Augsburg’s panthers. Early in the second period they had already established a 3 goal lead. Augsburg tried to get back and succeeded on two of the many power-play occasions in the game, but Munich could reestablish their lead and hold on to a 5-2 win in the end. Alexander Barta and John di Salvatore combined for two goals for the red bulls from Bavaria’s capital, who were quite disappointed by their early season results so far.

In Hamburg the Freezers also managed to leave their disappointments behind them and finally show what talent they have on their roster. And they didn’t waste a lot of time to turn their frowns upside down. After eleven minutes Julian Jakobsen, Garrett Festerling, Jerome Flaake and Duvie Westcott had already scored four times. After trading another two goals Wolfsburg started an attempt for a come-back in the first minutes of the last period. Gerrit Fauser and Tyler Haskins brought them within reach, but it stopped there. Julian Jakobsen finally decided the game with an empty netter and his second goal of the night. The 6-4 win kept Hamburg from losing touch to the Play-Off spots and meant a drop to third place for Wolfsburg as another team won a Derby that day.

The Kölner Haie were able to surpass them by beating the Krefeld Penguins in a battle known league-wide as the “little Rhine-Derby”. For a long time the result of this game was completely open. After a little celebration for Marcel Müller, who finally scored his first goal of the season, Mark Voakes marked the equalizer on the power-play. But in the last minute of the second period Krefeld’s Christian Kretschmann and Sinan Akdag were sent to the bench and Köln could start the last period with a 5-on-3 power play on new ice. And their Swedish blue duo Danile Tjaernqvist and Andreas Holmqvist used it for the 2-1. As they could also use their next big chance by topscorer Alexander Weiss - with a newly found efficiency they were lacking in the previous games – Köln moved into second place in the league.

But those were just the appetizers for the big derby today. Köln will play Düsseldorf tonight in the “real” Rhine Derby.

Another record in the DEL was set in Düsseldorf. Nürnberg also won its 8^th game in a row to start the season. This has only been done once by the Landshut Cannibals in the 1990s. Patrick Reimer and Steven Reinprecht both collected three points in their 5-1 win between the best and the worst team of the league.