DEL weekend recap (Oct. 23-25)

The top teams

Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers from Nürnberg were able to conquer and then defend the top position in the DEL standings over the weekend. A comfortable 4-0 road win in Krefeld against the struggling Penguins on Friday, was followed by a hard fought 4-3 OT win against second place Iserlohn on home ice two days later. Nürnberg was able to overcome a two goal deficit with less than 10 minutes to play in regulation and Derek Joslin in power play gave Nürnberg the extra point.

For Iserlohn their Sunday defeat was a bitter setback after the weekend had began in their favour with a 7-5 win against Augsburg on home ice. The result actually looked a lot closer in the end than the game ever was after Iserlohn had skated away with a 6-2 lead after two periods. In this game against Augsburg one forward was especially motivated. Brooks Macek received a call for the German national team for the first time days earlier and managed to score 4 goals on Friday. Against Nürnberg he would add another one to bring his weekend total to 5 - after scoring only once in the previous 10 games.

Current third and fourth Eisbären Berlin and Adler Mannheim faced each other on Friday when the Polar Bears travelled to South West Germany. The hosts Eagles were able to continue their upward trend with a 2-1 win in which Christoph Ullmann scored the game winner in power play late in the second period. The national team forward would continue his hot streak with another strike in a 3-0 win against Augsburg on Sunday - his 6th goal in the last 6 games, always scoring once. He is one of the key players for Mannheim's recent success with now 5 consecutive wins with 14 out of 15 possible points. For Berlin the weekend also had a happy end when they beat struggling Wolfsburg 3-2 on Sunday. For Wolfsburg it was already their 6th loss in their last 7 games. Their only 2 points after October 2 came in a shooutout win against last in the table Ingolstadt.

Grizzlys Wolfsburg had opened the weekend with a 0-2 home loss to Hamburg which brought their home losing streak to six losses in a row. Wolfsburg only managed a home win in their season opener against Düsseldorf on September 11. This is especially bitter for the Grizzlys as they have by far the lowest average attendance in the league in general. Poor home results only worsen this situation. As a result of their recent struggles, playoff candidates Wolfsburg are only 12th in the standings with 15 points in 14 games. On the other side Hamburg Freezers were able to reach the 7th position in the standings after the away win in the "Northern derby" against Wolfsburg before defeating vice champions Ingolstadt 3-1 on home ice on Sunday. In the derby win against Wolfsburg 19 year old Freezers goalie Maximilian Franzreb had his first ever DEL shutout.

Let's talk about Ingolstadt. They were surprise DEL champions in 2014, had a complete new face in 2014-15 and reached the finals again, though losing against Adler Mannheim. This year it seems like nothing is left of what made them strong in recent years. The team only collected 14 points in 15 games and with 4 wins is dead last six points behind the last pre-playoff spots. On Friday they turned a 0-2 deficit into a 4-3 away win against favourites Kölner Haie in front of more than 15,000 spectators but the next setback followed just two days later in Hamburg.

Surprises

It's hard to explain what's going on in Cologne this season. The team looks great on paper, the team plays very good hockey, gets the important leads game after game. But somehow the Sharks have huge difficulties defending a lead, especially in front of their homw crowds - and that despite the fans finally supporting them again, giving them the number one position in the attendance average with 12,406 throughout the first 8 home games. The 3-4 against Ingolstadt wasn't even the biggest disappointment for Cologne over the weekend. On Sunday this was followed by a major third period collapse against Schwenningen. Marcel Ohmann - who missed 7 months with a torn ACL - opened the scoring with his first two goals after his return in his second appearance but an efficient 5 on 3 power play gave Schwenningen new life with goals by Ashton Rome and Damien Fleury within just 20 seconds early in the third period. French international Fleury even gave all 3 points to Schwenningen with 13 seconds left on the clock after winning a face off and firing a powerful wrist shot past Wesslau into Cologne's net.

Schwenningen are the team of the hour in DEL. The team started horribly into the season but now won 4 games in a row - two six point weekend - and 5 of their last 6 games. With now 19 points they stay just one point outside of the playoff picture and 3 points behind a top six spot that guarantees a direct entry to the playoff quarterfinals. Damien Fleury is on fire with 7 goals and 1 assist in the last 3 games in which Schwenningen scored a total of 13 goals.

Other relevant developments were that Straubing was able to stop their fall by defeating equally struggling Krefeld at home on Sunday and Düsseldorf and Munich playing back to back games with both away teams getting the wins. 

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