With their fourth victory in a row, the Eisbären Berlin have defended their leading position in the DEL. Former national coach Uwe Krupp’s team took part in the opening match of the 28. 1:1 (0:0,0:0,1:1,1:0) after extra time against the ERC Ingolstadt.
The Nuremberg Ice Tigers are two points behind the Augsburg Panthers after 3:2 (0:2,2:0,1:0) with the Augsburg Panthers. Defending champion Red Bull Munich disenchanted the team of the hour. With a score of 3:1 (0:0,2:0,1:1) the Bayern only won their second defeat in the eight matches since the Germany Cup break.
Vice champion Grizzly’s Wolfsburg, on the other hand, suffered a severe setback in the battle for the best play-off places. Lower Saxony lost 4-5 on their own ice (1-2,2-3,1-0) against Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven and are already 14 points behind the leader Berlin in fourth place.
The Cologne sharks celebrated their fourth win in a row under the new coach Peter Draisaitl at the 4:2 (1:1,1:1,0,2:1) against Iserlohn Roosters. The eight-time champion remains in eighth place because the Schwenninger Wings also won 2-1 (1-0,0-1,0-0,1-0,1-0) after extra time against the Krefeld penguins. Title aspirant Adler Mannheim slipped to seventh place after the 2:4 (0:0,0:1,2:3) at the last table in Straubing Tigers.
Micki DuPont scored the winner’s goal for Berliners after 63 seconds in extra time. Previously, Louis-Marc Aubry had taken Dustin Friesen (45th) only 29 seconds after the Ingolstadt lead to equalise.
Milan Jurcina (27th), Dane Fox (28th) and Leonhard Pföderl (42nd) turned the game for Nuremberg after a quick 2-0 deficit. After the DEL-record scorer Michael Wolf had missed a penalty (24th) Derek Joslin (27th), Ryan Button (30th) and Patrick Hager (56th) made the decision in favor of the Munich team.
Bremerhaven scored three goals within six minutes in Wolfsburg: Jason Bast (31st), Jan Urbas (34th) and Jordan Owens (37th) made a 5:3 from a 2:3.