A shocking incident overshadowed Munich's win: Oberhausen’s Jason McBain had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. His legs were temporarily paralized after a nasty cross-check from Barons forward Peter Douris. The defender was hospitalised immidiately. His condition improved during the evening and he will be able to fully recover within a couple of weeks. McBain's legs are ok now, but he's still being bothered by back spasms.
Krefeld defended the league lead (55 points/26 games) with a 4-2 road win at Nuremberg. The loss dropped the Nuremberg Ice Tigers to third where they are tied with the Munich Barons (both 51/25). Cologne (52/29) climbed to second with 6-3 victory over Hanover. Hanover (24/25) has dropped to the bottom of the table while the Frankfurt Lions (25/26) left last place after upsetting defending champion Adler Mannheim on the road, 3-2 after penalty shootout.
Mannheim is fifth (50/27), five points ahead of the Augsburger Panthers (45/27). The seventh-place Berlin Eisbären (39/26) and local rival Berlin Capitals at 13 (30/26) are separated by only nine points, i.e. three wins. They remain in playoff contention, as well as Kassel, Düsseldorf, Oberhausen, Schwenningen and Iserlohn. Essen is at 14 (27/26), only a win ahead of last-place Hanover.
Defender Greg Johnston scored his first goal of the season as the Barons defeated Oberhausen 5-2 in front of 1,951 spectators at Munich’s Olympia-Eisstadion Sunday night. Captain Simon Wheeldon and winger Mike Kennedy had to watch from the stands after being suspended for a game after their game misconducts at Krefeld. Swedish forward Johan Rosen made his debut as team captain.
With Hans Lodin out for up to nine weeks after surgery on his injured wrist and Kent Fearns and Jason Herter sidelined as well, Barons head coach Sean Simpson could only field four regular defensemen. Versatile winger Andy Schneider had to help out on defense once again.
The Barons fell behind early on. Only 275 seconds into the campaign, Oberhausen took advantage of a Munich turnover. Andreas Lupzig outwaited Barons netminder Christian Künast to break the deadlock. But the Barons responded right away. A mighty blast by Johnston evened the score at 1-1 only 21 ticks later – the first goal of the season in only his fourth appearance for last year’s top-scoring defender in the DEL.
Back-to-back powerplay goals by Derek Plante and Dave Oliver made it 3-1 in favor of the Barons before the first intermission. Captain Johan Rosen extended the lead to 4-1 midway through the second when he knocked in his own rebound.
Revier Löwe Ladislav Karabin cut Munich’s lead to two goals in the final period. But Douris capped the scoring at 5-2 with a short-handed empty-net-goal at 58:12.
Munich Barons - Revier Löwen Oberhausen 5-2 (3-1, 1-0, 1-1)Scoring: 0-1 (4:35) Andreas Lupzig (Andrej Kovalev, Josef Zajic), 1-1 (4:56) Greg Johnston (David Oliver, Derek Plante), 2-1 (13:37) Derek Plante (Greg Johnston, Andy Schneider - 5:4), 3-1 (15:06) David Oliver (Derek Plante, Derek King - 5:4), 4-1 (26:06)Johan Rosén (Peter Douris, Peter Abstreiter), 4-2 (44:41) Ladislav Karabin (Christian Kohmann, Robert
Hock), 5-2 (58:12) Peter Douris (Andy Schneider, David Oliver - 4:6).
Penalties: Munich 6, Oberhausen 10 plus 10 misconduct for John Craighead.
Attendance: 1,951 (Olympia-Eisstadion, Munich).
