Munich, Germany - Gameday 2 in the DEL featured two local rivalries. Defending champion Kölner Haie and the thriving Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars needed a penalty shootout to decide their traditional battle for supremacy on the Rhine river. Ingolstadt saw the birth of another rivalry when expansion team ERC and the Nuremberg Ice Tigers faced off against each other Sunday night.

With a capacity crowd of 10,268 on hand at Düsseldorf’s Brehmstrasse, champion Kölner Haie upset local rival DEG Metro Stars and jumped to the top of the table with a 2-1 (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0) road win after penalty shootout. The win was a little lucky, though. Düsseldorf had all the momentum going its way when Trond Magnussen’s broke the deadlock on a short-handed odd-man rush 6:12 into the middle frame. Although the Metro Stars controlled the game, they failed to capitalize on their chances and allowed Cologne to get back into the contest. Tino Boos blasted a shot past netminder Andrej Trefilov in the final minute of the second period to tie the score at one apiece. After a scoreless third, Cologne’s Niclas Sundblad managed the only successful conversion in the overtime penalty shootout.

“After the 1-0 lead, we failed to add another goal. Unfortunately, we were denied by the woodwork three times, otherwise we would have gotten the win. But we’re on the right way”, Düsseldorf’s Magnussen said.

Ingolstadt storms to inaugural win

In its home debut, expansion team ERC Ingolstadt recorded its first-ever DEL win, handing local rival Nuremberg Ice Tigers a 5-3 (2-1, 2-1, 1-1) loss. After a close loss to champion Cologne in its DEL debut Friday, Ingolstadt jumped out to a 4-1 lead against the injury-riddled Tigers, who only played with three lines. Barely irritated by Nuremberg’s early lead by Marc Savard on a two-man advantage, Ingolstadt put four unanswered goals on the scoreboard. As on Friday, Francois Bouchard scored the first goal for the ERC, hammering a slapshot past Nuremberg netminder Marc Seliger on the powerplay midway through the first. Only a minute later, Sean Tallaire added another powerplay tally when he scored from the near slot after picking up Bouchard’s shot that ricocheted off the backboards. Playing shorthanded, Jason Young then stole the puck in his own zone, went coast-to-coast along the left boards and rifled the puck at the Tigers net. Seliger stopped it, but failed to control the puck and Young cashed in on the rebound.

Nuremberg’s goalie also mishandled Rainer Suchan’s shot a couple of minutes later, allowing Sam Groleau to extend Ingolstadt’s lead to 4-1 midway through the second, turning the sell-out crowd of 3,700 in the league’s smallest arena into a frenzy. Terry Yake moved the Tigers back to within two, but Ingolstadt continued to control the game until Neville Rautert secured the victory with the ERC’s third powerplay tally of the night with less than five minutes to go. Martin Sychra’s consolation goal capped the scoring in the final minute.

„We would have deserved a win or at least a point at Cologne on Friday. Now we can be content with our start into the season”, Ingolstadt’s coach Jim Boni stated after the historic win.

Iserlohn stuns title contender Mannheim

Underdog Iserlohn Roosters sneaked into third place in the standings with a surprising 3-2 (0-0, 1-2, 2-0) home win over the Mannheim Adler. Andrej Podkonicky and Igor Alexandrov scored 58 seconds apart in the final five minutes to cap Iserlohn’s comeback victory in a rough contest that saw a total of 68 penalty minutes.

The Berlin Eisbären, Augsburg Panthers and Frankfurt Lions managed to bounce back from opening day losses. Yvon Corriveau and Mark Beaufait both tallied two goals as Berlin stormed past the Krefeld Pinguine, 6-3 (2-1, 3-0, 1-2). Minnesota Wild draftee Christoph Brandner also struck twice for Krefeld.

Augsburg needed a shootout decision to down the Schwenninger Wild Wings on the road, 3-2 (1-0, 1-2, 0-0, 1-0). Schwenningen rallied back from a 2-0 deficit late in the second period. Ladislav Karabin and Eric Houde scored within the final minute of the middle frame to send the game into overtime, but Shane Carter converted the winning penalty shot to give Augsburg a two-point win. Behind goals from Jackson Penney and Marc Fortier, the Frankfurt Lions wrestled down the Hannover Scorpions 2-1 (0-0, 1-0, 1-1).