Berlin’s Swedish head coach Gunnar Leidborg could only field 13 healthy skaters, including two German minor league forwards who hadn’t practiced with the team before. The Capitals had originally tried to postpone the game – an effort that was rejected by the league and the Barons.
Coming off a bye on Friday, the Barons couldn’t take advantage of the situation, though. They looked very sluggish as the Caps small squad hung in with terrific resistance.
“A terrible game,“ Barons winger Alex Serikow said, who once again replaced Simon Wheeldon as Barons captain. Wheeldon will be in Canada for personal reasons for another week.
„Everybody seemed to be confused, nobody held his position,” Serikow explained. “I guess we all thought that we could put them away easily with ten goals or so. Goalie Christian Künast was the only guy who played well today.“
Added Barons head coach Sean Simpson: „I’m very disappointed. The only positive thing: We didn’t lose.”
Greg Johnston, who was the league’s best offensive-defenseman with the Caps last year, scored two powerplay goals for the Barons and was denied by the goalpost once.
With just over 13 minutes to go in regulation, winger Jörg Handrick finally put the game out of reach. He redirected a shot from defender Mike Smazal past Caps netminder Jan Münster to make it 3-1 in favor of the Barons.
Munich Barons - Berlin Capitals 3:1 (1:1 1:0 1:0)Scoring: 1-0 (13:27) Greg Johnston (Derek Plante, Derek King - 5:4), 1-1 (14:53) Lorenz Funk (Petri Kujala, Jonas Lanier), 2-1 (22:08) Greg Johnston (Andy Schneider, Derek Plante - 5:4), 3-1 (46:51) Jörg Handrick (Mike Smazal, Patrick Köppchen).
Penalties: Munich 16, Berlin 14 plus 10+10 misconducts for Greg Andrusak.
Attendance: 3067 (Olympia-Eisstadion, Munich).
