Berlin wins the Black Forest Goalfest

Schwenningen's season had quite a good start that saw them in the upper half of the standings before they recently started to slip towards the bottom, where they were expected by most experts. Today they showed why they had so much success in the beginning, but did not finish the story with a happy end.

The game started with both teams sharing goals through Jiri Hunkes for the Wild Wings and Spencer Machacek for Berlin in the first 7 minutes. Midway through the first period Schweninngen got a few powerplay opportunities and Ashton Rome used them twice to give a 3-1 lead to his team. Petr Pohl (shortly before the first break) and Marcel Noebels (3:30 into the second) could even the game again.

Ironically it was also Marcel Noebels, who gave the game its next turn. After Simon Danner had already converted a penalty against Berlin for too many men on the ice, Noebels was sent to the dressing room for a check to the head. Damien Fleury could get the 4^th powerplay goal for the Wings of the night to set the game to a 5-3 in their favour at the end of period 2.

Berlin, however, came out storming the Wings goal and consequently scored 3 goals in the first 5 minutes of the last period through Micki Dupont, Sven Ziegler and Barry Tallackson. The game's fortune had changed once again, but not for the last time.

Will Acton's equalizer at the 53:51 minute mark, which was his 4^th point of a 5-point game, only stood for 18 seconds, before Petr Pohl got the Eisbären back in the lead. Schwenningen pulled goalie Dimitri Pätzold and was successful with it. With 10 seconds left on the clock Andree Hult scored the 7-7 and forced overtime.

The overtime went on for 4:21 minutes without any shots before Florian Busch won the extra point for Berlin, who find themselves in 5^th place now. For Berlin it was the second road win of the weekend after beating Ingolstadt 2-1 on friday in a less spectacular game, while Schwenningen lost its friday game as well to Augsburg with 4-5, receiving all 5 goals in a 14-minute phase starting at the half time mark of the game.

Düsseldorf wins Rhine-Derby

The friday game in focus of the public was for sure the Rhine-Derby between Köln and Düsseldorf. Ken Andre Olimb kicked off things at the 6:15 mark with a rare 3-on-5 shorthander, intercepting a pass on the blue line and skating down the ice all alone to beat Gustaf Wesslau on the top right. The Sharks came back on the same powerplay with a slapshot of Fredrik Eriksson to make it 1-1.

Köln could also equalize Manuel Strodel's one-timer at the beginning of the second period, when Philipp Gogulla tipped in a feed from Eriksson ten minutes later, but the cheers did not hold long. 19 seconds later Ken-Andre Olimb could strike again for Düsseldorf to send the teams back into the dressing room with a 3-2 lead for the DEG.

The last period saw Marcel Brandt for Düsseldorf and Moritz Müller for Köln trading another pair of goals before Kurt Davis sealed the deal 3:25 away from the final horn. Rob Collins could add an empty net goal for a 6-3 derby win.

Düsseldorf managed to keep the form on sunday in a 7-1 blow out of the Hamburg Freezers. Köln on the other hand also lost in Augsburg today with 3-4.

Mannheim stays cool in Iserlohn

The top game of the weekend was played in Iserlohn were the second placed Roosters hosted the first placed Mannheim Eagles. Both teams entered the game with wins on friday. Iserlohn had beaten Hamburg 2-1 in the shootout and Mannheim had won 4-2 against Krefeld.

After an intense, but scoreless first period it was Andrew Joudry, who opened the scoring deflecting a Christopher Fischer shot past Mathias Lange. With 32:24 minutes gone Brodie Dupont gave the home crowd the first reason to go crazy with his powerplay marker, set up by a nice Mike York pass from the corner of the ice.

Unfortunately not even two minutes later Kai Hospelt returned the favour also on a powerplay for the guests from Mannheim. Pushed by the as always loud audience in the small arena in Iserlohn the Roosters tried to get the next equalizer and should happen to get there. With 7 minutes left it was again a powerplay that made a difference. Michel Periard could get the second puck behind Dennis Endras and sent the game into an additional 5 minutes of play, in which Iserlohn even survived a 4-3 powerplay by the Eagles.

So the shootout had to bring the decision. Jamie Tardif scored on Mathias Lange for Mannheim and thanks to Dennis Endras stopping all three Iserlohn players, Mannheim took home two points from Iserlohn.

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