Berlin – In their own hall, as the latest results have shown, the Eisbären Berlin are now on the road to recovery. The German champions even put away residues, such as the 2-0 defeat against Bremerhaven, and can turn them around. Against the Fishtown Penguins it was 5: 2 in the end, it was already the third victory in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) in the last four games in the arena at Ostbahnhof. The initial curse with four home defeats at the start of the new season seems to be gone.
Lost again in overtime
Coupled with the strength of seven victories in a row in foreign halls, the Eisbären have worked their way up to third place in the DEL table and would have loved to extend their away series in Wolfsburg. As in the first duel between the two finalists from last year for the championship, the Berliners had to admit defeat again, again after extra time, this time not 2: 3, but 4: 5. What both teams showed was inspiring, and that is why Serge Aubin did not choose too critical words. “It was just a great ice hockey game in which both teams fought hard,” says the polar bear coach, “in overtime it could have gone both ways. We are of course disappointed with the result, but definitely not with the commitment. ”
The bar, i.e. only a few centimeters, prevented the eighth sense of achievement in Wolfsburg at first sight. Matt White had shot, but just missed, Wolfsburg’s Darren Archibald made it a little better in direct return and scored the decisive goal after 57 seconds of extra time.
At second glance, however, the defeat was to be found elsewhere and something that the polar bears have repeatedly undermined in the past few years: the high number of goals conceded outnumbered. There are a total of twelve in the previous 16 season games, four of which the Berliners conceded on Sunday in Wolfsburg. And again two of them within 72 seconds in the second third, when the polar bears had the game and their opponents under control, were 3-1 ahead. This means that the Berliners can be found in the statistics of the special teams at the back of the DEL. This is primarily due to the nine outnumbered goals scored, the third worst value in the league, but also to the outnumbered goals conceded. After the four hits in Wolfsburg, the polar bears are statistically one of the worse DEL teams in this category too, only four have conceded more.
In five versus five, the polar bears dominate the game
It didn’t help in Wolfsburg that they “dominated almost the entire game with five against five,” as defender Jonas Müller recognized. But: “Unfortunately we had to pay dearly for the fines. The time penalties undoubtedly cost us the win today ”, Serge Aubin had to criticize something in his team’s game. So this time he and his team left a strange hall with just one dot.
But there is not much time left for quarreling. On Tuesday evening (7.30 p.m.) it will continue in the arena at Ostbahnhof. The game against the Straubing Tigers marks the start of a week with three DEL games. On Thursday, also at 7.30 p.m., the Krefeld penguins will be guests and on Sunday (4.30 p.m.) the Berliners will compete at ERC Ingolstadt. They have to worry about top scorer Blaine Byron, who ended the game in Wolfsburg prematurely due to an injury. “It doesn’t seem to be serious,” hopes Aubin, “I don’t expect him to be out for very long, but we don’t take any risks against Straubing, he won’t play.”