Seventeen of the 25 Olympic heroes were back on the ice only 48 hours after their sensational silver medal from Pyeongchang, and the play-off fight in the DEL is coming to a head.
After the 50. and the third last main round matchday, six teams have the chance to qualify directly for the championship round behind the three top clubs Red Bull Munich (103 points), Nuremberg Ice Tigers (97) and Eisbären Berlin (95).
In the top game on Wednesday evening, the Eisbären won in a duel with Champion Munich, who was the only club not to use his Olympic starters, 3-2 (1-0,2-1,0-1,0-1) and maintained the two-point advantage over the Nuremberg Ice Tigers in second place.
With a 2:1 (1:0,1:1,1:0,0:0) the Franconians put a damper on the hopes of the eleventh-placed Düsseldorf EC team to participate in the pre-play-offs.
The slip-ups of the Grizzly’s Wolfsburg with 1:4 (0:2,1:1,0:1) against the Straubing Tigers and the Cologne sharks with the 1:3 (1:1,0:1,0:1) at the Iserlohn Roosters used the ERC Ingolstadt (76) and the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven (75) and moved on to the direct torture.
The Ingolstadt team sent the Krefeld Pinguinie back to the Rhineland with a 1:5 (0:1,0:4,1:0) defeat, Bremerhaven won 6:5 (2:2,4:2,2,0:1) against the Augsburg Panthers.
Wolfsburg is sixth in front of Cologne, Iserlohn (all 74) and Adler Mannheim (73), who maintained their play-off chances with a 4:1 (1:0,3:1,0:0) at the Schwenninger Wild Wings. On Friday, the 51st. Matchday, Sunday 52nd. and last round.