Buck and the puck – Ingolstadt wins game 2

The first 10 minutes of the game were action packed. Ingolstadt started better and had a couple of odd man rushes. One Ingolstadt shot against the goal post was reviewed, but correctly denied. Then the referees gave the crowd and experts something to discuss in the first break. After a hooking by Kurtis Foster a delayed penalty was signalled. Ingolstadt’s Christoph Gawlik still managed to get the pass across the ice to Patrick Hager, who scored, but the referees interpreted a touch of the puck by Mannheim’s Frank Mauer as a controlled play and whistled down the play before the puck ended up in the net. The home crowd did not like it.

Ingolstadt’s superior play finally materialised 25 seconds into the second period when Brandon Buck powered through the Adler defense and managed to get the puck around Dennis Endras for the go-ahead goal. Now Mannheim started to wake up and created more goal chances on their own.

This didn’t bother Ingolstadt too much. 5 minutes into the last period Brandon Puck converted another rush for Ingolstadt to double the lead. But a minute later Mannheim was finally part of the game. Christoph Ullmann piggybacked his opponent, skated around the goal and found Ronny Arendt with an incredible no look-backhand pass on the far side, who could easily get Mannheim on the scoresheet. Now the game got spectacular. Another 4 minutes later Brendan Brooks found himself sat down on the ice in Mannheim’s zone, but did not give up on the play and chipped the puck over to Jared Ross, who let 2 Adler defenders skate into empty space to finally force Dennis Endras to commit and push the puck through his legs in the net. Brendan Brooks added a second assist shortly after thanks to Derek Hahn banging in the rebound of his shot.

With three goals down Mannheim now needed a new comeback like those they have shown in the semi-finals against Wolfsburg. Robert Raymond could indeed postpone the decision with his shorthanded goal with 5 minutes to go, but Petr Taticek sealed the deal with an empty netter, which was also his third point of the day.

With the 5-2 win, Ingolstadt could tie the series, that saw Mannheim go ahead last Friday with a 2-1 victory due to Ronny Arendt’s overtime goal. Both teams will meet again on Tuesday in Manheim.

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