Ingolstadt steals Game 3 in Mannheim

The third DEL final started with big pressure by the home team, but Dennis Reul’s hooking penalty gave the game an early twist. Right off the face-off Michel Periard scored on Ingolstadt’s first shot in the game. Mannheim kept the pressure high and got rewarded with Kai Hospelt’s deflection of Reul’s shot from the blue line. Over the last ten minutes of the first period both teams seemed to need a little break from the high speed and shifted a few gears down.

Ingolstadt returned to the gas pedal quicker. 1:21 minutes into the second period Patrick Hager chased a puck in the corner to avoid an icing call and made good use of the new hybrid icing rule by battling out his opponent and giving the puck back to Brandon Buck, who came storming in and buried the puck in the net from the face-off circle. 4 minutes later Buck battled his way through the offensive zone and fed Aaron Brocklehurst on the far post to double the lead. With 3-1 for Ingolstadt, Mannheim was still in the game and the hope was sparked by a high sticking penalty against Buck. To the disappointment of the Adler fans he only got 2 minutes although Marcus Kink was bleeding and had to leave the game shortly. The powerplay went by without any change to the score. The last two minutes in the period should become a nightmare for Mannheim. First Jared Ross scored on a wrap around and seconds later John Laliberte converted a sharp pass into the slot from Derek Hahn to give Ingolstadt an unbelievable 5-1 lead in Mannheim before the second intermission.

The defending champion did not slow down in the last period either. With 3:44 minutes off the clock Brandon Buck added his second goal of the night on the powerplay, matching his 2-goal performance from game 2. The rest of the game was dominated by a couple of fights.

The good thing for Adler Mannheim is that in the playoffs, it does not matter if you lose 1-0 or 6-1. They will focus on game 4 in Ingolstadt on Friday to claim back the home advantage.

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