MUNICH – GERMANY: The new DEL season is a done deal, so said a lot of experts; and they are right after the first 4 games. Mannheim and Berlin are the big favorites for the championship, but behind these two it’s going to be a hard challenge.
Hamburg and Iserlohn bought a lot of players, and while this is not very big news when talking about Hamburg, it’s a very surprising for the Iserlohn Roosters. The Roosters are one of the Underdogs from the former years, but they are providing a few positive surprises, Hamburg, only negatives.
Other teams like Ingolstadt and Augsburg also have a few changes in the roster, they lost goalie Endras into the NHL (Minnesota Wild drafted him) their first attacking line and with Florian Kettemer one of the best German defenders has also gone.
The traditional teams from Cologne and Dusseldorf have also two different stories for this season. Cologne with the former NHL star and German national coach Uwe Krupp bought a lot of young guys with prospects for the national team. Dusseldorf’s main and name sponsor METRO will stop its sponsoring after this season and the searching for a new one is not very positive up till now.
Other teams like Munich have other problems; the second year is the hardest, that’s a wise sentence, but it could be true. Last year was a phenomenal season for Munich, so this year the expectations are quite high. Nuremberg, one of the secret tips for the champions, have lost their first three games.
So, the game between these two teams is a special one. It is not only a Derby between two Bavarian teams. It´s a game between an old DEL-team and a last year surprising team with no high expectations for this year.
While Munich won 2 games out of their opening three, Nuremberg lost all of them. Because of these 3 losses, Nuremberg fired its coach Andreas Brockmann right before the match against Munich.
That’s not the first time that a coach gets fired before an away match in Munich. Last season this happened 3 times, so Munich’s head coach Pat Cortina knows that the other team will be more encouraged than the games with the old coach. But Munich had no need to worry.
The first game in the season ended good for the EHC Munich. The game in Krefeld against the Penguins started with a good period for the home team, but after 5 minutes, Munich arrived in the new season and fought back. So, the first period ended goalless.
The second period started like the first one. Jochen Reimer in the Munich goal stopped every attempt of the Penguins, but his own forwards had no chance to score a goal either.
But after 10 minutes, Reimer had no chance; Francois Mèthot had the puck at the boards, played a blind pass into the slot, Andreas Driendl got the puck, did a 360° and fired the puck over the Shoulder of Reimer into the net.
But just 3 minutes after the lead, Bryan Adams and Martin Schymainski had a 2 on 1 and Adams had no problem with scoring the equalizer in the top corner of Scott Lankows goal.
The third period started with an engaged EHC Munich. The second attacking line with Jason Ulmer, Klaus Kathan and Noah Clarke headed to the Krefeld goal. Kathan passed the puck to Ulmer at the blue line and headed forward. Ulmer gave the puck to Clarke, he played back to Ulmer and Ulmer played from the left face-off circle into the slot where Kathan already waited for the puck, he just touched the puck with the right force for the 2 – 1 lead.
But Krefeld wasn’t really shocked. Just 2 minutes later, Duncan Milroy scored during an delayed penalty for Munich. Just 1 minute later, Munich got a penalty. But Krefeld couldn’t score, Eric Schneider got the puck at the own blue line while all Krefeld players were on the attack, So Schneider ran alone onto the goal of Lankow and scored. Schneider then had his second goal in the last minute with an empty netter from his own half.
With this win, Munich had its first home game against the Hannover Scorpions, and because of the Octoberfest, EHC Munich played this game in specially designed Lederhosen-jerseys. But the party feeling was over after just 23 seconds.
Stephane Julien couldn’t control the puck at his own blue line and lost it to Jeffrey Hoggan and he had no problems scoring.
After a few disputable penalties against Munich, Scott King scored again another easy goal. He skated from coast to coast without any problem and just shot through the legs of Jochen Reimer.
In the second period Hannover was again the team with the success. Hannus had luck on a powerplay situation, and had no problem with scoring. In the last period, Andre Reiß got a match penalty for a check from behind. But Munich wasn’t able to get any goal or even shot during these 5 minutes.
Head coach Cortina said after the game that Munich could play 10 hours more and they would not score today. So the game ended with a 0 – 3 loss.
The following week, Munich had to play against the Dusseldorf Metro Stars. For this game, Munich had a few changes. First of all, in goal instead of Jochen Reimer played Sebastian Elwing. Reimer had a hard week with the funeral of his good friend Robert Dietrich, who died at the tragedy in Russia.
The second change was the jersey. Munich played with the third jersey, in yellow with blue shorts. It looked like the Swedish jersey, just without the 3 crowns. But still without a sponsor on the breast, which is still missing.
The first period was totally dominated by Dusseldorf. The shot statistic was 15 to 3 for the home team, but the score board said 0 – 1. Martin Buchwieser, shooting star of last season of the EHC Munich, skated from the right side into the Dusseldorf third, passes the puck to Ulmer, gets it back and went around Jean-Sebastien Aubin and had no problem putting it in the bag.
In the second period, EHC ignited a firework against the totally overstrained Dusseldorf defenders. Jason Ulmer scored the second goal during a powerplay. It was nearly a copy of the third goal in Krefeld and also wonderful to watch.
The next goal was scored by Felix Petermann with a rocket from the blue line. And 4 minutes before the horn, Martin Schymainski scored the next. After this goal, Jeff Tomlinson did a curious move, he switched his goalies, That’s not so curious, but 3 minutes later, Aubin went back into the goal?
But this move was not successful in the last period. Again the second line did a wonderful move and pass play and at the end of this, Klaus Kathan scored for 0-4. While the home fans started to sing “Against Sweden you are allowed to loose”, Sebastian Elwing, who did a great job especially in the first period, showed some mercy with Dusseldorf.
He got the puck on the left side of his own goal, did a turn and passed the puck on the other side. But while he awaited one of his team mates, Adam Courchaine was waiting there for Elwings assist and ended the possible shut-out.
Evan Kaufmann then did a little bit more result cosmetics and scored for the final result of 2-5.
And today was the fourth game, the derby between Munich and Nuremberg. Munich started with the drive from the game in Dusseldorf; Nuremberg still seemed to have problems within the team.
This was visible after just 2 Minutes. The puck was dumped deep behind Patrick Ehelechners goal, bounced back and two Ice Tiger players were at issue who should take the puck.
This situation was exploited by fourth line attacker Christian Wichert and he had no problem with scoring for the lead. In the run of play Munich pushed more and more and gave Nuremberg no big chances.
Also in the second period the home team were the dominating team, but missed their chances. And the crowd in the last period were afraid, cause the second goal didn’t happened for EHC Munich, And if a team is not using its chances, the other team will score.
But not in this game, one and a half minute before the end Klaus Kathan released the fans from their sorrows. In power play he got the puck from Jason Ulmer and fired it below the bar.
With this 3 wins out of the first 4 games, Munich is now in fourth place, but points equal with the teams above.
The next weekend brings up games at home against Iserlohn and away at Mannheim.
Robin.Hilger@prohockeynews.com
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