Down Go The Champs!

Last year's DEL champions and this year's odds-on favourites in the EHC Red Bull Munchen met up with this blog's favourite DEL team yesterday, and there was hope that the Krefeld Pinguine could keep pace with the high-flying Red Bull. The Pinguine were coming off a 6-5 overtime win over the Iserlohn Rooster last Friday and a 4-2 victory over the Schwenninger Wild Wings on Sunday to improve their record on the season to 1-1-1-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L). The Red Bull, meanwhile, had defeated the Ausburger Panthers 2-1 on Friday before dropping an 8-3 game to the Iserlohn Rooster to see their record fall to 2-1-0-1. Needless to say, a win by the Pinguine would vault them ahead of the defending champions, but this would be no easy task.

I'm in no way fluent in German, but I think the video shows more than what I can translate, so let's go to the highlights!

If you were following along there, Jordan Caron's goal at the start of the second period went to review, but it was found that the goal was a good goal as Caron gets credit for his fourth goal of the season with the helpers going to Chad Costello and Jacob Berglund. Minutes later, Mark Voakes hammered home the one-timer over Dimitri Patzold's left shoulder off the feed from Michael Wolf following Yannick Seidenberg keeping the puck onside, and the Red Bull were back even with Krefeld at 1-1.

To the third period - or "drittel" as they are called in German - where Krefeld struck before the water had even frozen as the new layer of ice. Phillip Bruggisser made a short pass in his own right corner to Berglund at the face-off dot who spotted Chad Costello streaking down the left wing, and his cross-ice stretch pass appeared to miss its mark as Seidenberg stepped into the passing lane, but somehow the puck eluded Seidenberg's stick and feet, landing on the stick of Costello who had a step on Seidenberg. Costello cut in from the wing, opened up Danny Aus Den Birken by taking the puck across the crease on the breakaway, and slid the puck five-hole just 53 seconds into the frame for the 2-1 Pinguine lead.

There aren't many coaches who would say that sitting on a 2-1 lead against the previous season's best team is a good idea, but the Pinguine continued to push under the direction of Brandon Reid as they looked for an insurance goal. Bruggisser, as seen above, rang a shot off the post behind Aus Den Birken on a power-play midway through the period, and Dimitri Patzold was solid when called upon as time wound down. In the end, Krefeld outlasted Red Bull Munchen for the 2-1 victory as they improved to 2-1-1-1 on the season!

Things don't get a lot easier as the Pinguine will play the Grizzlys Wolfburg tomorrow. Wolfburg is 1-0-0-4 on the season, but all four losses have been close. Following that, the Pinguine are back in action next Friday against the Straubing Tigers, and we could see the Pinguine possibly in the top-half of the standings if everything goes as well as it did yesterday!

Big cheers for the Pinguine as it appears Brandon Reid has the flightless birds flying high!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!