Ingolstadt wins DEL championship

29 Apr 2014 | Markus Nisius

ERC Ingolstadt wins Game 7 in Cologne 2-0 and celebrates its first ever DEL championship. Gawlik and Laliberte score the championship winning goals.

The Sharks came out storming and put a lot of pressure on Ingolstadt in the first 10 minutes. But in the second half of the first period Ingolstadt started to take over the game. Again the fans saw a game with great intensity but few goals as it had been in Game 6 already.

The second period should see dominance over the game shift even more often. Midway through the period the Sharks had a shift in which they could get a couple of shots on Timo Pielmeier’s goal, but nothing happened that would change the scoreboard. The biggest shock moment on the other side was when Danny aus den Birken believed to have saved a shot, but it trickled through and slowly towards the goal line. Luckily for Köln, he could see it right in time. Then after 36:15 minutes it was Christoph Gawlik, who reacted first when a lose puck was lying in the slot and he put it past aus den Birken for the first goal of Game 7.

The last period opened with the goal that should bring the decision. John Laliberte scored on a breakaway just 28 seconds into the period. After that the Sharks kept attacking while Ingolstadt focused on defense and didn’t allow any big scoring chances for Köln. The last two and a half minutes Danny aus den Birken left his goal, but even that could not turn anything around.

Ingolstadt celebrates its first ever DEL championship and is the first team that could win it from the 9th place of regular season, beating the reigning champions Berlin, the second placed Krefeld Penguins, the first placed Hamburg Freezers and finally the Kölner Haie.