In the battle for the german ice hockey championship, the adler mannheim have once again unnerved the defending champions red bull munchen and are only one win away from the silver cup.
The team of coach pavel gross celebrated a 4-0 (0-0, 3-0, 1-0) win away from home, the third of four necessary victories in the final series, in which the score is now 3-1. On friday evening the eagles can make their eighth championship title perfect in their own hall. The munich team, on the other hand, will need a minor miracle to become the first team in the german ice hockey league (DEL) to win four championships in a row.
Cody lampl (24. Minute), ben smith (25.) and phil hungerecker (26.) with a triple within two minutes as well as national player matthias plachta (42.) provided for the goals of the guests. The home side of success coach don jackson was once again too harmless offensively.
"The five minutes in the second period were decisive for the game," said mannheim goalie dennis endras, who went without a goal for the second time in the finals series. "Then the guys gave good gas and made the chances purely."Munich striker patrick hager also recognized that he had "missed" the momentous phase in the second period. "That’s when mannheim struck," he told magenta sport.
Unlike in game three, when they conceded a goal after five seconds, munich had not been caught off guard in the opening phase. The home side had a good start with a shot on target from keith aulie (5.) the first chance of the game, in which both teams offered the 6142 spectators in the sold-out olympia ice rink a furious first third: that it went into the break without a goal was due to the national goalkeepers: eagle goalkeeper endras saved against frank mauer (8.), danny aus den birken showed a world class reflex against tommi huhtala (15.). The first chance was prevented by munich’s forward john mitchell, who cleared the puck on the line in front of chad kolarik (7.).
Within 2:06 minutes, coach pavel gross’s guests made sure the game was decided in the second period. First they forced a loss of discs in the munich third, which lampl took advantage of. Shortly after, smith put the puck past goalie aus den birken into the corner after an individual action. And then hungerecker poked the hard rubber disc over the line for 3:0.
The munich team was shocked, a short mannheim phase of pressure had unnerved the defending champions after a good start. Red bull was decimated in the duel, in addition to several long injured playmaker mark voakes returned after an injury from game two again not back. Mannheim had to do without national player sinan akdag, who had received a knee check on monday.
The last munich hopes for a comeback in the game destroyed plachta with his goal for 4-0 under the guards of aus den birken through. The olympic runner-up had had enough and left the ice in frustration – the game was already decided by then.