Goalies dominate DEL Playoffs

EHC München vs Straubing Tigers 2-0 (5-0, 2-1 OT)

Game 1 on tuesday was a one-sided affair. Straubing might have been still tired from the series against Ingolstadt, while München could enter the game well rested. Consequently they had no trouble scoring 5 unanswered goals, while goalie David Leggio blanked the Straubing offense with 23 saves.

On friday in Straubing it looked differently. Both goalies managed to keep their nets clean for two periods and even set another highlight. At the 33:44 minute mark Leggio and his counterpart Matthew Climie had enough of waiting for the next puck and engaged in short but tough goalie fight that saw Straubing's Climie come out as the winner on points.

In the last period the skaters finally got into the focus as well. Austin Madaisky scored early to give the home crowd the hope of a series tie. Those hopes experienced a major setback when Matthew Smaby sent the game to overtime with his equalizer 5 minutes before the end of regulation and Yannic Seidenberg scored the game-winner 4 minutes into overtime.

Eisbären Berlin vs Kölner Haie 1-1 (0-3, 1-0 OT)

Shutouts and road wins are the theme of this series so far. On tuesday in Berlin the audience saw a game dominated by an incredible defensive performance on Köln's part. Gustaf Wesslau had 30 saves for his first playoff shutout in the DEL. Up front Philipp Gogulla started the scoring midway through the second period with a lucky bounce of his skate. Patrick Hager doubled the lead in the third period fighting his way through the defense and tapping in a rebound off Petri Vehanen. Alexander Weiß' empty net goal finalised the 3-0 win for the Sharks.

Yesterday both goalies Vehanen and Wesslau blanked the skaters for 63 minutes. But then it was Laurin Braun, who just had returned to the line-up, scoring the only goal of the game to tie the series at 1-1.

Iserlohn Roosters vs Nürnberg Ice Tigers 1-1 (4-0, 2-4)

Nürnberg knew what they had to expect in Iserlohn and still they could not prevent it from happening. The typical hurricane of the home team in the first minutes resulted in a 2-0 lead after 1:39 minutes. Brodie Dupont and Jason Jaspers scored for Iserlohn and this might have broken Nürnberg's resistance already. Mike York and again Jaspers could build on the lead and secured a 4-0 victory for the Roosters.

In Nürnberg the Ice Tigers had the better start with immense pressure in the first minutes. Apparently they wanted to copy the home style of the Roosters. Yet the success rate is not the same. Iserlohn still managed to score first on a powerplay through Bobby Raymond's blue line blast. Two minutes later Leo Pföderl reset the game with a powerplay goal of his own taking advantage of a loose puck in front of the goal, skating around goalie Lange and putting it in the net.

In the second period Steven Reinprecht got the Ice Tigers in the lead for the first time in this series just to see Dave Steckel add a goal to it later in the third period. In the final minute Brooks Macek could score one more time for Iserlohn, but with Patrick Reimer's empty netter that came much too late and Nürnberg evened the series with this 4-2 home win.

Wolfsburg Grizzlies vs Düsseldorfer EG 1-1 (1-4, 3-2)

In game 1 on wednesday Düsseldorf wanted to set a sign where this series is headed and managed to establish a 2-0 lead by the end of the second period through goals by Eduard Lewandowksi and David van der Gulik. The marker by Wolfsburg's Brent Aubin turned out to be nothing more but polishing up the own statistics as Alexander Preibisch and Daniel Fischbuch stole the home advantage for Düsseldorf with a 4-1 road win.

The home advantage was gone again sooner than expected, although Düsseldorf could equalize two Wolfsburg leads in game 2, but Jeffrey Likens' goal after 39 minutes happened to be the game-winner in a 3-2 victory for Wolfsburg. The series will go back to Wolfsburg on sunday tied at 1-1.

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