Munich – DEG MetroStars review

MUNICH, GERMANY – It would have been typical for this game, and typical for the attitude of the team from Dusseldorf who were missing their number one goalkeeper who was injured in warm up. There were only 5 seconds left on the clock and the puck was behind the Munich goal, when the Dusseldorf players were already in heading to the dressing room to hear the words of their coach.
Because after the first eight minutes in the first period Munich forward Kyle Helms was alone in front of the Dusseldorf goal and he pushed the puck beside Niederberger into the net. This goal was such a shock for the MetroStars that one minute later the Munich top-scorer, Eric Schneider was allowed to shoot 2 times unchallenged on the goal before he scored on the third try.
With this the match was totally moved upside down and the guest team could never recover in this game.
Shortly after the beginning of the second period the guests got a penalty because of hooking from the referee duo of Jablukov and Olenin. And the EHC didn’t wait long, 30 seconds into the penalty David Wrigley moved around the goal, fed Dave Reid and the defenseman netted in the near post to make the score 3-0.
Now Dusseldorf reared up one last time, but Kreuzer missed his chance to score against the Munich goalkeeper, Sebastian Elwing. With the direct counter-attack Klye Helms passed across the goal crease to a waiting Schneider who scored easily for a 4-0 lead.
How much DEG’s second goalkeeper can be commiserated with was demonstrated in the 35^th minute; Rene Kramer picked up the puck in front of the goal and was permitted to try his luck without any opponent near him before Martin Schimainsky ended up with the puck and scored. The 1.68m tall forward scored again to make the cou8nt 6-0, this time after a nice pass from David Wrigley.
And then, 5 seconds to go in the 2^nd, Dave Reid got the puck and gave his luck a try with a shot from his own blue line. The puck flew through the neutral zone toward the goal, but the Dusseldorf players didn’t react. At the blue line the puck was deflected by a Munich player and Niederberger just managed to save the shot.
In the 3^rd, EHC did their skating exhibition and allowed an honorary goal for DEG.
With this, over 3400 fans were excited about the first Munich victory for 2011 and went home happy.
Both teams will engage in a rematch on Sunday, this time at the River Rhine.
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Photography by Franz Feiner
Editors note: This is the first report from our new reporter in Munich Robin Hilger. His articles will be available in both English and German. We welcome Robin to the team and look forward to his insights in to DEL hockey.