DEL: Pre-playoffs end with sensations

EHC Red Bull München (7th) - Iserlohn Roosters (10th)

The favourites from Bavaria had lost their last three regular season games but managed to find back to their form for game #1 of the pre-playoffs against Iserlohn. The guests tied the match twice for a 2-2 around halftime before Jan Urbas and Daniel Richmond with his second of the day gave München a two-goal advantage for the first time. After another goal for Iserlohn through Brooks Macek it was Alexander Barta who made everything clear with an empty netter in the very last second.

Iserlohn had only won one of its four games against München in the regular season and lost twice at home but in game #2 they managed to get a fast double through Michael Wolf and Robert Raymond in PP until 06:50 before Colten Teubert scored another one in the middle of the third period. Only then München woke up and two goals in the 55th minute within just 25 seconds through Nick Palmieri and Fabio Carciola kept the game open until the very end but the guests couldn't force overtime anymore.  

Game #3 couldn't have started much better for München. Just 1:37 were gone from the clock when Nick Palmieri gave the home side the lead but Brooks Macek (2), Jeffrey Giuliano and Brodie Dupont turned the match around for Iserlohn.

For the Roosters, member of DEL since 2000, it's only their second quarterfinal qualification after the 2007-2008 season. The second and last time they had made the playoffs was in the 2011-12 season when they were beaten 2-0 in the pre-playoffs by Düsseldorf.

Series results:
09.03.2014 München - Iserlohn 5-3
12.03.2014 Iserlohn - München 3-2
14.03.2014 München - Iserlohn 1-4

Iserlohn win the series 2-1

Eisbären Berlin (8th) - ERC Ingolstadt (9th)

After 7 won championships in the last 9 seasons - including a title hattrick in the last three editions in 2011, 2012 and 2013 - Berlin find themselves in a rebuilding phase after losing several veteran key players, the most important of them being Sven Felski who ended his career in 2012 after 20 years in the first team of the Polar Bears.

In the 2013-14 campaign Berlin never really seemed to find to their rhythm from the first moment on. After a disappointing European Trophy final tournament where they were host in December, they at least managed to improve in the last weeks of DEL's regular season and won 9 of their last 10 matches to make a jump from the non-playoff spots to the 8th position and securing home advantage in the pre-playoffs.

Eisbären had a perfect record against Ingolstadt in the regular season with four wins in regulation for a perfect 12 out of 12 possible points, the last of these wins in the last regular season match! They continued where they stopped when André Rankel's power play goal just six seconds before the second intermission gave them a small 1-0 home win in game #1 in front of 11,700 fans against Ingolstadt.

Game #2 started with a lead for Berlin late in the first period through Danish international Mads Christensen at 16:33 but ERC's Slovenian Olympic player Ziga Jeglic and John Laliberte turned around the match with a double within 32 seconds even before the first intermission. Michel Périard after 30 seconds of the middle period and Travis Turnbull with an empty netter with just 8 seconds left to play made everything perfect for Ingolstadt to force a decisive game in Berlin.

For a long time it looked like the 2-1 lead for Berlin - Florian Busch and Henry Haase had scored in the first period with a goal for Ingolstadt by Christoph Gawlik in between - should be enough to reach the quarterfinals but after an assist by Zigal Jeglic it was Timothy Hambly who sent the match into overtime at 54:14. There Jeglic was again in the center of attention when he earned an assist in the series winner by Benedikt Schopper at 67:16 that left the majority of the 11,700 fans in Berlin behind in a state of shock!

Series results:
10.03.2014 Berlin - Ingolstadt 1-0
12.03.2014 Ingolstadt - Berlin 4-1
14.03.2014 Berlin - Ingolstadt 2-3 OT

Ingolstadt win the series 2-1

After the pre-playoffs the following quarterfinal pairings exist:

Hamburg Freezers (1) - Iserlohn Roosters (10)
Krefeld Pinguine (2) - ERC Ingolstadt (9)
Nürnberg Ice Tigers (3) - Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg (6)
Adler Mannheim (4) - Kölner Haie (5)

The quarterfinals already start tomorrow, Sunday the 16th, and will be played as a best of seven series just as the semifinals and the finals. We will give you a detailed preview before the start of the quarterfinals!

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