Wolfsburg shocks Red Bull

11 Mar 2015 | Markus Nisius

The Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg managed to upset the heavy favourite EHC München in Game 1 of the DEL playoffs, while Hamburg and Mannheim win their home games. Champion Ingolstadt starts well, too.

Adler Mannheim (1) vs Nürnberg Ice Tigers (8) 2-1

After a first period without any team taking full control over the game, Mannheim didn’t waste any time in the second to make clear, who is the favourite in this one. Matthias Plachta scored after 22 seconds and gave Mannheim the lead. 4 minutes later Jon Rheault doubled the score for the Eagles. For the Ice Tigers the only thing that was possible tonight was Leonhard Pföderl’s 5^th goal of the playoffs, and so Mannheim could stick with the 2-1 lead and get the lead in the series.

EHC München (2) vs Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams (7) 0-4

After a very strong regular season the only thing the team from Munich did not expect was probably being shutout by the 7^th seed in the first home game. But Christof Höhenleitner, Vincenz Mayer and Tyler Scofield established a 3-0 lead for Wolfsburg over the second period and München was shocked. They did not find any way to get past Felix Brückmann and in the end Jeff Likens could add another empty net goal to make it 4-0 for the Grizzlies.

Hamburg Freezers (3) vs Düsseldorfer EG (6) 4-0

The first period was an even affair between both teams and yet Hamburg should take a big advantage from it. Thomas Oppenheimer, Matt Pettinger and Garrett Festerling scored to give the Freezers a 3-0 lead, which they should hang on to over the whole game. Düsseldorf just was not careful enough in a couple of situations and that was what made them lose the game. The audience was not going to see any more goals, except for Mathieu Roy’s empty netter, over the last two periods and so Hamburg will carry a 1-0 series lead into Düsseldorf on Friday.

ERC Ingolstadt (4) vs Iserlohn Roosters (5) 4-3

The reigning champion managed to win the first home game in this year’s attempt to defend the title, but it was a close game. In the first 25 minutes it seemed like the game would be reduced to a duel between Jared Ross and Derek Whitmore, who both scored 2 goals each. Then later in the second period Ingolstadt found new goal scorers in Brendan Brooks and Patrick Hager to get a 4-2 lead. This turned out to be the game-winning sequence as Iserlohn could only add one more powerplay goal through Alexander Foster with 94 seconds left.