The honor of opening the season was awarded to the Mannheim Adler (Eagles) and Nuernberg Ice Tigers, who squared of last Thursday. Although the Bavarian big cats were the better team for most of first 30 minutes or so, in the end
The Hamburg Freezers also showed an impressive performance by shutting down the Straubing Tigers 6-0. The Iserlohn Roosters seemed on a similar path against the Koelner Haie (Cologne Sharks). After 14 minutes they led 3-0, but in the end needed overtime to beat their visitors 6-5. The Ingolstadt Panthers came to an easy 5-2 win against the DEG Metro Stars – which was not because the Panthers were the better team, but because Duesseldorf more or less beat themselves by playing “arrogantly” as manager Lance Nethery put it.
A lot of attention was focused on the game between the Frankfurt Lions and the Augsburg Panthers, which Germany’s “player of the century” Erich Kuehnhackl must have witnessed with mixed feelings. As Frankfurt’s new Sporting Director he had reason to moan about his team’s 2-4 loss.
But at the same time he probably was a very proud father, since Germany’s “most promising talent”, Augsburg’s 17-year old Tom Kuehnhackl, gave a very solid DEL debut.
An interesting observation that is worth mentioning: Almost all of the teams, that won their season openers, suffered a loss on day two and vice versa. Exceptions to this rule were the Freezers (3-2 shootout win at the Ice Tigers) and the Roosters (3-0 at Straubing). The only teams without a single point so far are the Hannover Scorpions, who have been in action just once, and the Straubing Tigers, who have not even scored a goal yet, but already conceded nine.
Cantact: carsten.vanzanten@prohockeynews.com
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