Kölner Haie bounce back with perfect weekend

Germany’s elite league DEL has seen two weekends of play now and Kölner Haie could use the current one to make their fans forget about the slow start on the previous one.

On Friday they got their first win in the season in a tough match against Nürnberg Ice Tigers. The Ice Tigers got leads at three times over the game, but none of them persisted. Moritz Müller, Marcel Ohmann and Philip Gogulla could even up the score before Jamie Johnson could finally establish the first lead for the Sharks, which they kept until the end for a 5-3 win.

Tonight they travelled to Hamburg, where they met with a team that yet has to find its first point on DEL ice. After Adam Mitchell and Charlie Stephens traded goals in the first period, it was the second period that decided this game for Köln. At the 26:37 mark Alexander Sulzer used his NHL experience with the higher blue line and fired a shot past Dimitri Kotschnew. John Tripp took away any chance to save that shot for Kotschnew by using his tall body to block his sight. 10 minutes later Sulzer fired another shot from the blue line and this time Tripp did not just block the goalie’s sight, he even deflected it in for his 150^th DEL goal. The Sharks kept the lead with a great defense and made it a 6-point weekend.

The only team with a perfect record after 4 games is EHC München. They also won both games this weekend as they did last weekend. The current victims were Krefeld and Düsseldorf. In Krefeld Michael Wolf could celebrate the first goal in a DEL jersey other than an Iserlohn Roosters one. He scored the 3-2 in the third period after Krefeld had come back from a 0-2 deficit in the second period. But Michael Wolf was not the only scorer worth a note that night. Felix Schütz, who was acquired from KHL club Wladiwostock earlier in the week, added a goal with 1:22 minutes left in the game for his first goal for Munich.

Today it was Daryl Boyle, who opened the scoring. With Corey Mapes and Bernhard Ebner drawing penalties in the very first minute of the game on Düsseldorf’s side, he used the opportunity to get Munich in the lead. By the first minute of the next period Mads Christensen had already tripled the lead for the Red Bulls before DEG could get on the board themselves through Michael Davis. And then in the third period it was again Michael Wolf’s privilege to score the third quick goal for Munich to give them the deciding 3-goal lead, which was too much for Düsseldorf’s two remaining goals by Conboy and Turnbull.

Munich now leads DEL three points ahead of Berlin, Mannheim and Augsburg with 9 points each. Köln is now in 7th place.

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