Defending champion Red Bull Munich defended his title in the DEL at Christmas with difficulty and misery. Against the ERC Ingolstadt, the champion won his ninth consecutive victory in 4:3 (1:2,1:1,1:0,0:0,1:0) in the penalty shootout and is therefore only at the top of the list due to the better goal difference in front of Nuremberg Ice Tigers.
Due to their sixth consecutive success, the Franconians equalled Adler Mannheim and Munich 5-2 (0-0,3-1,2-1) against Adler Mannheim. Only one point behind the leading duo, the Eisbären Berlin follow their safe 4-0 (3-0,0-0,1-0,1-0) against Fischtown Pinguine Bremerhaven in third place.
The Cologne sharks were among the winners of the Christmas match day. The Rhinelanders consolidated their sixth place with a 4:1 (0:0,3:1,1:0) at the back of Straubing Tigers only one point behind the Schwenninger Wild Wings (1:5 at the Augsburg Panther). Cologne’s chances for one of the six fixed play-off places also increased significantly due to the defeats of his rivals Iserlohn Roosters (2:3 at the Düsseldorf EC), Bremerhaven and Mannheim.
The Grizzlys Wolfsburg are barely in sight of the top trio in fourth place after their 2:3 (1:0,1:2,0:0,0:0,0:1) defeat against the Krefeld Penguins. For the chances of the KEV on the playoffs, the success after two defeats was very important.
After Ingolstadt’s 2-0 lead and 3-2 lead, Munich came in second. After the first two guest goals by Michael Collins (9th) and Brett Olson (14th), Derek Joslin (20th) and Patrick Hager (28th) were equal for the first time before Jonathan Matsumoto (58th) forced the extra time after Ingolstadt’s 3:2 by Darin Oliver (35th). In the penalty shootout Dominik Kahun was responsible for the decision in favour of the hosts.
Nuremberg only slowly picked up momentum against Mannheim and was initially even lagging behind due to Marcel Goc (24th). Still in the middle section, however, Leonhard Pföderl and Thomas Gilbert brought the Franconians on the winning track with a double strike (both 27th) and Patrick Reimer (39th). In Nuremberg’s seventh victory in the past eight matches, John Mitchell (49.) and Brandon Segal (60.) were also successful in the final section, while Thomas Larkin (55.) on the opposite side only managed to achieve results cosmetics for the Kurpfälzer.
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