EHC Munich takes over DEL lead

30 Nov 2014 | Markus Nisius

A perfect weekend for the Bavarian capital brings a change atop the DEL standings. At the bottom the Kölner Haie are starting to roll up the field from behind.

The DEL does have a new number one in the standings. After the dominating Adler Mannheim fell to the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg on Friday in overtime, EHC Munich could benefit from it and take over the lead as they won at home against the Sharks from Köln, which started to regain their old confidence in the last weeks. Michael Wolf and Alexander Barta could both collect 3 points in the 4-1 win over the Sharks.

But the real test for them came today as Munich had to take on the team that beat Mannheim on Friday and Munich solved this task in style: Wolfsburg wasn’t able to score a single goal at home and one guy was unstoppable for them. David Meckler provided Munich with 2 goals and 3 more assists to secure an easy 6-0 win that will keep them in first place beyond the weekend. However one has to mention that Mannheim still has 2 games in hand.

For Köln the loss in Munich was only a minor bump on the road as they have now won 5 out of their last 6 games and are currently proving why they ended up in both the last two finals of the DEL. Today they defeated Schwenningen’s Wild Wings with 3-1 by goals of Mike Iggulden, Alexander Sulzer and Ryan Jones, who only arrived a few weeks earlier, but is already contributing to the latest success of the Sharks.

With the win Köln moved within 4 points to a Pre-Playoff spot that is currently hold by another big name in trouble. The Eisbären Berlin are having problems again this season. Especially on the road. While the loss today in Ingolstadt might have been an understandable one – you can lose against the reigning champion – the fact that the last regulation win outside O2-arena came 2 months ago should be something the team needs to worry about. Back then on the German national day they won in – surprise – Munich!