The Nuremberg Ice Tigers, despite their defeat in the top game against Red Bull Munich, will end the year as the leader of the DEL standings. The Franconians were defeated by the defending champions in front of 10,000 spectators in the Olympic Hall in Munich with 2:3 (1:1,1:1,1:0,0:1,0:1,0:1) after extra time. Nuremberg continues to lead the standings with 78 points, closely followed by Munich and Eisbären Berlin (76).
The capitals missed the leap to the top of the standings with a 2:3 (2:0,0:1,0:2) defeat of Düsseldorf’s DEG in their own arena. Spencer Machaczek (35th), John Henrion (46th) and Manuel Strodel (54th) were the players from the Rhineland. In Munich, Brooks Macek scored a second before the end of the extra time to win.
Meanwhile, the Adler Mannheim ended their defeat series and climbed to a pre-playoff place. The seven-time champions celebrated their 5-1 (4-1,1-0,0-0,0-0) win over Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven after five consecutive bankruptcies.
In front of football world champion Lukas Podolski, the Cologne sharks lost in their own arena to Grizzly’s Wolfsburg 3-4 (1-3,2-1,0-0).
The Schwenninger Wild Wings were defeated by Straubing Tigers 1:2 (0:2,1:0,0:0,0:0). Straubing remains the last place in the league after their tenth win of the season after 37 games.
The ERC Ingolstadt improved with the 5:4 (1:1,1:1,1:1,2:2,0:0,1:0) after a penalty shoot-out against the Augsburg Panther twelfth in the standings by one place to rank nine.