DEL weekend recap

The first full weekend of the 2015-16 DEL season has been played and offered light and shadow throughout the league. The leaders couldn't have been a bigger surprise. The Straubing Tigers who only managed 15 wins last year for a weak second to last spot, conquered the pole position. Only the Grizzlys Wolfsburg - the team changed name and logo during the offseason in an attempt to attract more fans - also haven't lost a single point yet while Cologne is third in the standings with two wins, one of them in the shootout though. Schwenningen, Augsburg and Nürnberg were kept without a point yet.

Friday games:

In front of an almost sold out home arena (att: 13,382), Adler Mannheim beat Schwenningen in a Southwest German derby with the minimum result of 1:0. The current champions and clear favourites needed a third period goal by Ryan MacMurchy to beat the Wild Wings who finnished last season at the very bottom of the table. German national team goalie Dennis Endras had a perfect start into the season with a 21 save shutout. Marcel Goc had 4 shots on goal in his return from NHL but couldn't yet find the net for the Eagles.

In a highly anticipated game Kölner Haie were able to start with a shootout win against Red Bull Munich in front of 18,243 spectators in LANXESS Arena. After missing the playoffs last year, Cologne signed several Swedish players and three of them made the difference against financial power Red Bull who signed former Haie and current national team goalie Danny aus den Birken in the summer. Johannes Salmonsson had scored one goal in regulation while Fredrik Eriksson won the extra point for the hosts in the shootout. The man of the match though was a third Swede to shine in his Haie debut. Goalie Gustaf Wesslau stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced during the match before also stopping all three penalty shots he faced!

Hamburg were able to win another opening highlight by defeating vice champions Ingolstadt by the score of 4-2. Almost 9,000 fans came to see how the Freezers almost gave away a 3-0 lead before Jerome Flaake's power play goal with less than 10 minutes to play, let the home crowd celebrate. Wolfsburg goalie Felix Brückmann was the other goalie to collect a shutout on opening night when the Grizzlies beat Düsseldorfer EG by the score of 2-0. The decision only came in the very last minute when Mark Voakes scored with an empty netter.

Straubing turned around the match against Iserlohn to win it 2-1 while Eisbären Berlin were able to be the first in the standing till Sunday by beating Nürnberg 5-2 in front of almost 12,000 fans on home ice. Florian Busch with two third period goals made null and void the efforts of Nürnberg who scored twice through Patrick Reimer. The Friday matchday was concluded by a 5-3 win of Krefeld in Augsburg. The game could have been really ugly for Augsburg who were down 1-5 shortly after the start of the second period but the Panthers who missed the playoffs last year kept the result in a more moderate distance.

Sunday games:

Straubing Tigers became the number 1 in German ice hockey for this weekend by completely overrunning Krefeld during the Penguins home debut. Half an hour was played and Straubing had a 6-0 lead in their favour. Three goals by Krefeld till the start of the third period were answered by Maury Edwards and Sean O'Connor for a more than comfortable 8-3 away win.

The other team to collect the full amount of six points were the Grizzlys Wolfsburg who defeated Schwenningen 3-2 on the road. Daniel Widing, Robbie Bina and Tyson Mulock had given Wolfsburg a two goal lead by a power play scorer through Ashton Rome for Schwenningen in between and the late second Wild Wings goal through Andrée Hult with two seconds left on the clock in a 6 on 3 situation was too little, too late.

Another excellent performance by new Haie goalie Gustaf Wesslau who stopped 40 of the 42 shots he faced, secured Kölner Haie their second win in the second game of the season. An early Nürnberg lead by Derek Joslin in power play was soon equalized by Swedish Haie player Fredrik Eriksson before his fellow countryman Andreas Falk ended all hopes of the hosts in the third period to score the 4-2 final result that sends Nürnberg to the last position in the standings after one weekend - but after facing top teams Berlin and Cologne this shouldn't be a sign for concerns yet for the Ice Tigers.

DEL record champions Eisbären Berlin themselves stumbled on their first road trip when facing Iserlohn. The 3-2 for the Roosters was also their first win of the season. On Friday Düsseldorf lost on their road trip while Hamburg won their home opener. Two days later Düsseldorf could use the home advantage themselves and beat Hamburg 4-1 with goals by Kurt Davis, Ken Andre Olimb, newly signed Norm Milley and club legend Daniel Kreutzer. Mathieu Roy had score the equalizer for Hamburg in the first period. Sunday also brought the next derby to DEL. Bavarian sides Ingolstadt and Augsburg faced off with the better outcome for the favourites from Ingolstadt who won their home opener 3-2. Brian Lebler, Thomas Greilinger and Martin Davidek turned around the early Augsburg lead by Andrew LeBlanc who also score the second goal for the guests with few minutes left on the clock. While Ingolstadt won for the first time in 2015-16, Augsburg stays without a single point.

In the top game on Sunday, power houses Red Bull Munich and Adler Mannheim faced in Bavaria with the better end for the Red Bulls. Michael Wolf (2), Jason Jaffra and Toni Söderholm gave Munich a 4-2 win and the 4th position in the standings. With two power play goals and a short handed empty netter, the special teams made the difference for the Bavarians. On the other side Mannheim cut the deficit to 2-1 and 3-2 by two goals of Glen Metropolit.

Players to mention:

New Swedish Haie goalie Gustaf Wesslau stopped 69 of the first 73 shots he faced in his DEL career and stopped three penalty shots in his very first shootout to give Kölner Haie a 5 point weekend. In the scoring department 4 players already collected 4 points in the opening weekend:  Yared Hagos (Krefeld), Florian Busch (Berlin), Mike Hedden (Straubing) and Yasin Ehliz (Nürnberg). Nürnberg's Patrick Reimer is the only player with 3 goals so far.

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