By Boris Rousson
bo@prohockey.de

Hamburg, Germany - ...and we are one of them!! We took one step towards the DEL finals by beating Adler Mannheim in six games. We will now face the FrankfurtLions, who surprised a lot of people by beating the Kölner Haie. We fared pretty well in the regular season against the Lions, winning three out of four games, but as you all know and saw in the first round of the playoffs already, the regular season doesn't mean much once the playoffs start. The only thing that the regular season is good for is to give you an extra game at home if you finish higher in the standings, and that is also not so important, especially after the first round.

In the regular season, Frankfurt was a high-scoring team, in both goals... They played a very high-energy game, with a lot of their defensemen involved in the offense. Peter Ratchuk, Paul Stanton and Francois Bouchard all figured in the top-scoring defensemen in the league. We will have to definitely keep an eye on them. On offense, of course there are Pat Lebeau and Jesse Bélanger, one of the best combination of players, but we also will have to contain playoff veterans Dwayne Norris and Jason Young. But their goaltender Ian Gordon got most of the credit for the "upset" against Köln. He put together an amazing 3-game shutout streak, and he proved that he could handle the playoffs pressure. Their whole defensive system, just like every team left, has tightened since the end of the regular season, and it won't be easy to score goals...

How I saw our series against Mannheim

It was not a "homers" series. Five of the six games were won on the road. So much for home-ice advantage! Here is my version of the six hard-fought games.

Game 1

Only win for the home team, 5-2 for us. We had a good start, played very intense and got major contributions from our defensemen, who scored three of our goals (Van Impe, Fearns and Peacock). House and Tomlinson completed the scoring. It was the only game in which we outshot Mannheim. Mannheim also showed us right from the start what one of their strategies was: they hit everybody, all the time, including myself a couple of times.

Game 2

"Be prepared to win 1-0!". That was a quote that we heard in our preparation before the playoffs, and we used it in Game 2 in Mannheim. Marc Seliger replaced Richard Shulmistra in goal for them, and was very good. I was good too, probably my best game of the season. Mark Greig scored the only goal, on a nice pass from Purds, just past the half-way mark of the game. Our penalty killing unit was outstanding, killing all of their 10 power-play opportunities, and that without Manner and Imper for most of the game, two of our main penalty-killers on defense.

Game 3

We were a little sluggish in game 3, and they played a good game, and once again, Seliger was very solid. They beat us 3-0 in Color Line Arena. They were better than us in every category, skating, hitting, and all the little things too. We escaped the first period unharmed, but they scored early in the second and never looked back.

Game 4

We went into Mannheim and played another good road game, our special teams once again leading the way in a 4-1 win. They scored an early power-play goal, but we bounced back with a power-play goal of our own (Peacock) before the first period was over. In the second period, it was our penalty killing unit that did the work, on both ends of the ice. We killed their PPs, plus we scored the eventual game winning goal while a man short on the ice, Jacko completing a nice drop pass from Tom-Tom. A minute later, as he was coming out of the penalty box, Washie roofed a backhand shot over Seliger on a breakaway. Purds completed the scoring late in the third.

Game 5

Our first "matchball" in Hamburg turned into a goaltending clinic. I don't want to sound cocky or arrogant, but Seliger and myself were again very good. It was like a "Whatever-you-do-I-can-do-better" type of game. Whenever one team had a good scoring chance, the goalie had a better save. They had the better chances early in the game, but we came stronger as the game went. In the 10th minute of the fourth period, Roach put a backhand shot over my shoulder for the only goal. So we had to go back to Mannheim again...

Game 6

You probably read or heard about the turning point of Game 6 already. The decision by Mannheim's coach De Raaf to dress junior goalie Aus den Birken instead of Shulmistra made the headlines. Seliger got hurt when Groleau cross-checked Fearnsie into his goalie, and he tore his left knee ligaments. The game was 1-1 at the time. So the rookie goalie came in the game while we were on a 5 on 3 power-play. Could it be any worse situation than that? Well it turned into a nightmare: Right off the faceoff, Peacock hammered a shot through traffic for a 2-1 lead, just 5 seconds after Seliger's injury. Next shot, about a minute later, still on the power play, again the Chief with a rocket on the glove side. Our power-play scored 4 goals on the afternoon, and we took advantage of the growing frustration from Mannheim. Hlushko, Corbet and Kennedy all took some questionable penalties and we made them pay the price. Chief had a great day, completing his hat trick in the second period, giving him 5goals in six playoff games.

The other semifinal

Eisbären Berlin will face ERC Ingolstadt in the second semifinal. While Berlin convincingly swept DEG, Ingolstadt came back from a 0-2 deficit, and won the next 4 games against Nürnberg to advance. Ingolstadt is a very disciplined, hard working, defensive-minded team that could give Eisbären all they can handle. And Jimmy Waite is having an incredible season, and he can win games almost on his own. Berlin comes in very well rested, maybe even too much, and I expect a very tight series there too... Don't let the regular season standings fool you!! You know what I think about that...