DEL - Köln takes over series lead

Kölner Haie – Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 3-0 (Playoff 2-1)

After equalizing the series on Friday the Sharks planned to take over the lead today, but it should turn out to be much harder than expected. In the first two periods a defensive minded game developed from both sides. The game should only get some momentum, when 2 Grizzlies had to visit the penalty box in the middle of the second period and left the Sharks with a 5-3 power-play for 2 full minutes. However, the Grizzlies knew how to deal with the situation and managed to survive. Just 2 minutes after that Jeff Likens was sent to the box again and this time around Andreas Holmqvist converted the power-play for Köln with his first goal since november. Now Köln could focus even more on defense and in the rare moments in which Wolfsburg still found a gap to break through it was Danny aus den Birken, who stopped the shots of the Grizzlies. With the last minute ticking down Wolfsburg tried desperately to find a good moment to pull the goalie, but the Sharks were faster: Thorsten Ankert broke off a Wolfsburg attack and Mika Hannula brought it down the ice where Chirs Minard converted it with 65 seconds left in the game. Too much for Wolfsburg, who started a brawl afterwards. The following power-play was also put to good use by Yared Hagos scoring the 3-0.

Hamburg Freezers – ERC Ingolstadt 2-1 (Playoff 1-2)

Coming in with a 2-0 lead the 9th placed ERC Ingolstadt started off with lots of confidence. Even the early penalty against Benedikt Schopper after 58 seconds could not stop them. Christoph Gawlik decided to ignore the fact of being down one man and scored shorthanded to give his team the lead. And Ingolstadt kept dominating. Then all of a sudden David Wolf found Matt Pettinger in front of the goal, who tied up the game. This goal boosted the moral of the Freezers a bit and in the second period they finally found their game with 14-5 shots. Morten Madsen made sure it also paid off on a power-play midway through the second period taking the lead from another David Wolf feed. Hamburg could hold on to that lead over the last period and got its first win in the series. But on Tuesday Ingolstadt will look to get the match point at home.

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