Nürnberg and Wolfsburg complete quarterfinals

Nürnberg Ice Tigers vs Eisbären Berlin 3-2 OT, series 2-1

After an eventless first period except for a 5-on-3 powerplay, which Nürnberg could not use, the second period should raise the home crowd out of their seats. The line of Yasin Ehliz and former NHL star Steven Reinprecht established a 2-0 lead between minutes 31 and 37, while especially Reinprecht’s goal was a beauty coming from a sharp angle with the backhand after a nice setup pass from Ehliz.

But Berlin proved that they are a true playoff team since it took them less than 2 minutes in the last period to get one goal back on Nürnberg with a deflection of a James Sharrow shot by Julian Talbot, who got his second goal in this series. With 8 minutes to go Casey Borer pressed the reset button for the game on the powerplay scoring from the slot.
In the following minutes Berlin got stronger and stronger and with that trend the game went into overtime.

The same story here for a long time. But then the game slowly opened up again and the decision came when Berlin took two penalties in a row. Shortly after the first player was back on the ice, Jason Jaspers got the puck high in the slot and hammered it in to let the arena go crazy and Nürnberg move on into the quarterfinals, where they will meet Adler Mannheim.

Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams vs Krefeld Pinguine 3-2, series: 2-1

The game was just 92 seconds old when Krefeld got on the scoresheet first through Mike Mieszkowski taking advantage of a rebound Wolfsburg’s goalie Felix Brückmann had to let go after a Yared Hagos shot. The first period was again dominated by Krefeld, but in the second period Wolfsburg should come back into the game. After 3 minutes Tyler Haskins used a penalty shot granted to him to equalise and, after they missed another penalty shot, with four minutes to go in the middle period Tyler Haskins could break through on the left wing and managed to bring his pass straight to Matt Dzieduszycki’s stick, who tipped it in for the surprising 2-1 for the Grizzlies. But still in the second period Krefeld provided the audience with an even game to go in the final period as Daniel Pietta got the 2-2 equaliser.

The theme for the last period was safety first until the Penguins made a huge mistake with 5 minutes left. The puck ends up right in front of the goal, Sebastian Furchner slides in, Duba can’t hold it and the rebound is put in by Tyler Haskins. Now Krefeld was under pressure, but could not get back any more.
Wolfsburg moves into the quarterfinals and will face EHC München on wednesday. 

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