Eisbären Berlin - Die Welt ist eine Scheibe

22.01.2012 “Berlin plays very intelligently“ – and extends the lead

“The atmosphere in Berlin is very unique and the fans are awesome“, Jon Sim new Eisbär said after Friday’s match against München. During his first game he felt the tremendous support given by Berlin´s fans. During this week 41.900 spectators visited the three games at the o2 World Berlin – a spectacular number. “Although many young players are on the ice for Berlin at the moment, they perform very intelligently “, Hamburg Freezer´s coach Benoit Laporte stated after the game. “We had problems to convert our chances”. The Hamburg Freezers lost Sunday’s match up against the Eisbären Berlin by 3 goals to 0. Berlin outshot Hamburg by 45 to 27.

The Eisbären scored in the first period punishing Freezers´ Christoph Schubert for his roughing penalty (12:24). The strikers got into power play position very quickly and pressured hard to find the net. Nick Angell´s slap shot was deflected by a defenseman’s skate so that the puck lay on the ice right in front of John Curry´s goal. Florian Busch rushed into the goal crease to knock it in at 13:11. The game continued to be very fast going up and down the field. Berlin clearly dominated Hamburg during the period outshooting them by 17 to 4.

Unfortunately Berlin couldn´t keep up their dominance during the second period. Tactics dominated the period, the game stayed close, but no goals were scored.

In the third period Hamburg pushed to equalize the game. Both teams tried to fulfill their aims. In the last period the amount of chances was equal. Garrett Fensterling had the equalizer on his stick standing in the slot area at 06:05. On the other side it was Florian Busch who almost augmented the lead at 07:17. “We stayed out of the box – it was very important for us to get the victory today” the Eisbär voiced his happiness about the win. “To play against such teams as Hamburg is more fun than playing against teams such as München. Hamburg is a team who wants to play ice hockey whereas München plays very physically”. It was noticeable that Berlin´s players were running out of energy after the marathon of five-games-in-ten-days. “To play so many games shouldn’t be so tiring for us. It is more a good practice for the upcoming playoffs”, he stated.

It was Eisbär Julian Talbot who finally increased Berlin´s small 1 goal lead. At 09:53 the puck hit the net. Talbot converted his own rebound in the air – unfortunately the goal didn´t count because of his high stick. Still he remained on the ice and in the same shift he rushed down the field on the left side. This time his wrister besides goalie John Curry was good (11:07). Barry Tallackson finalized the 3 goals to nothing score with an empty netter – 23 seconds remaining in the game. Goalie Rob Zepp interfered with all of Hamburg´s 27 shots – it was his fourth shutout of the season.

Ken Frege