Berlin does it again

20 Dec 2011  |  Regular season  |  O2 World Berlin
Eisbären Berlin	6-2	Hamburg Freezers
Periods: Shots: 3-0 (12-16) 0-2 (5-8) 3-0 ( - )
Referees: Georg Jablukov, Gordon Schukies  |  Spectators: 14000

The bad pre-christmas weather in Germany also affected the match of the two Anschutz teams. While the Freezers arrived late in Berlin's O2 World and therefore had less time to prepare for the game, referee Daniel Piechaczek couldn't even make it to the arena on time from his Bavarian home so that Berlin based Georg Jablukov had to officiate the game as an emergency solution and should play a major role in the first period.

The Hamburg Freezers felt they didn't deserve the last defeat when they received Berlin just two days ago. Before the game players and team staff were optimistic regarding their chances for an away win in the German capital and so they didn't waste much time to hide themselves. Instead they took over the initiative and played with a lot of self-confidence but failed to reward their efforts with a goal. On the other side Freezers team captain - German international and former NHL player Christoph Schubert - received a really unnecessary penalty for hooking his opponent far away from his own goal. Now with the one-man-advantage the Polar Bears didn't hold on and scored first through Frank Hördler with 11:54 left on the clock. The hosts took the boost with them and and scored again two and a half minutes later. As in the previous game on Sunday Hamburg was again extremely unlucky in a goal against when one of their defenders stumbled over his own goalie John Curry and also took a Polar Bear with him. In this situation Richie Regehr only had to push the puck into the empty net. Both teams played very aggressively in a hard fist period with a total of 55 penalty minutes. With the opponent short handed Hamburg was all over the place and had to accept even the 0-3 when Julian Talbot let Curry no chance. When Nicholas Angell checked Freezer Brett Engeldhardt who was skating backwards and had no eye contact with him Engeldhardt fell with his head into the boards and after he had to leave the ice temporarily because of a possible concussion even a match penalty could have been given. To take revenge for this hit Freezer defender Charlie Cook had a fist fight with just this Nicholas Angell which wasn't the first in this game. In a controversial call the referees decided that the hit on Engelhardt was not intended and therefore no penalty should be given. For the fight Angell only get two minutes while Cook received a match penalty.  

In the break Hamburg attacker Jerome Flaake said that his team wanted to find back into the game by playing hard while his GM Stéphane Richer told the news that the penalties were very stupid and had to be stopped to have the chance for a comeback. In the second period the Hamburg Freezers started significantly better and regained their sovereignity. When a Freezer hit his opponent in the face with his hockey stick the guests were lucky that no penalty was imposed on them. After almost exactly the middle of the game Canadian Serge Aubin brought hope back to his team by deflecting a puck from the left wing through the pads of Berlin goalie Rob Zepp. Berlin was not able to keep the opponent away from their own zone and so the 2-3 from Jerome Flaake on the rebound of a shot by David Wolf was the logical and well deserved result 150 seconds before the end of the period. Between their two goals the guests also had luck when Tyson Mulock failed to score for the hosts after a terrible give-away.

At the beginning of the third period it looked like Hamburg could continue its race to catch up. Out of thin air Eisbären Berlin decided the game when two individual mistakes of the guests within 78 seconds get Hamburg off course. In the first situation André Rankel scored after defender Brendan Brooks lost the puck close to his own goal. In the second Mulock punished a horrible give-away and placed his shot on the right side of the net. In the following time the Freezers didn't find a way back and three minutes to the end Jens Baxmann even scored the 6-2 after transforming a nice pass from the right wing by Laurin Braun. In the end the lead was probably one or two goals too high. Now Berlin won seven of its last eight games and conquered the second position in the table while Hamburg lost six out of seven and now is sixth in the DEL. 

 

Advanced player search

Tweets by @eurohockey