Derby day in DEL

26 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende

Of the six league matches on Wednesday four were derbies. There was nothing such as home advantage as Ironically in all derbies the away teams won.

The Augsburger Panther were on a good way when they received EHC München for a Bavarian duel as they soon had a 2-0 lead through John Zeiler and Sergio Somma until 12:14. This didn't stop them though from being taken apart with six-consecutive goals against in the rest of the match. Lubor Dibelka and Ulrich Maurer already made it 2-2 after the first period before Mike Kompon with a double, Blake Wheeler and James Ty Morris made it 2-6. Both teams changed positions in the table.

Blaine Down was the man of the match in the win of his Straubing Tigers in the Bavarian derby away against ERC Ingolstadt. Not only did he score four goals but also did he earn the game winner in overtime at 63:33. The other strike for Straubing was gained by Karl Stewart. On the other side Sean O'Connor and Thomas Greilinger scored two goals each, including scoring the equalizer after a 2-4 deficit in the third period. Three days after an humiliaiting 0-8 defeat in Berlin, the Tigers are back in fighting distance with the pre-playoff spots.

Hannover received Hamburg for the Northern derby but couldn't really benefit from the derby boost. Instead Rob Collins and Brandon Reid had pathed the way for the guests with their goals in the first period. In the last 20 minutes Jerome Flaake and Thomas Dolak made everything clear for the favourites who as fouth stay in touch with the top group in the DEL table.

Derbies in the West between Düsseldorf and Krefeld were always very close and exciting in the past but this year the DEG has to play with unexperienced players mostly due to the departure of their main sponsor and they are last in the table. Krefeld on the other side is in top form and so it was not that surprising that they also took this hurdle today in the top game that was also shown live on Servus TV. Andreas Driendl and former DEG forward Adam Courchaine brought Krefeld twice in front in the first 20 minutes with the completely surprising equalizer in between for Düsseldorf when Drew Paris' shot that would have ended in the nowhere was deflected from the leg of a defender. Fracois Methot and Mark Voakes made it a clear 4-1 lead for Krefeld in the second period before Justin Bostrom made the result look a bit more friendly for Düsseldorf. Still again Methot made it 5-2 Krefeld. For the Penguins it was the 12th (!) win in the last 13 matches.

Iserlohn kept their playoff hopes alive with a solid 5-2 win against Nürnberg. Brandon Rogers, Jeff Giuliano, Mike York and Michael Wolf made it a 4-1 lead for the hosts until 55:17 with the only goal against coming from Patrick Reimer. When Marco Nowak cut the Iserlohn lead to two, the guests from Nürnberg risked everything by pulling out their goalie for an additional attacker and Mark Ardelan used this to score the 5-2 via empty netter.

Bottom side Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg more than deserved the point they won today on the road against Eisbären Berlin. They were behind 0-2, 1-3 and 2-4 against the DEL record champions but were able to extend the game to overtime. Norm Milley and Christoph Höhenleitner were successful for the Lower Saxons in the third period. NHL lockout star Daniel Brière who already had scored one in regulation, earned the game winner for Berlin at 61:28 for an early end of overtime.