Czech goaltender Tomas Pöpperle made 23 saves for his first-career DEL postseason shutout as the Berlin Eisbären blanked the DEG Metro Stars 2-0 in Game 2 of the 2006 DEL Finals Saturday. The defending champions now have a 2-0 stranglehold on the best-of-five series and can wrap up their second German title with a home win in Game 3 Monday.
As in Thursday's 6-1 win on home ice, it was again defenseman Derrick Walser who scored the game-winning goal for the Eisbären in front of 10,300 at Düsseldorf's Brehmstrasse Arena. With Stars defender Alex Sulzer in the sin bin for hooking, Walser connected on a point shot to give Berlin a 1-0 lead 3:50 into the contest. Fellow defenseman Deron Quint also tallied on the power-play to double Berlin's lead to 2-0 with 2:26 left in the second period. The Eisbären had a 5-on-3 advantage with Thomas Jörg and Todd Reirden serving minors for holding and hooking, respectively.
While Berlin cashed in on two of its five powerplay opportunities, Düsseldorf went 0-for-5 on the man advantage, including a full two-minute two-man advantage early on.
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