Eisbären Berlin - Die Welt ist eine Scheibe

16.01.2012 Very disappointing weekend for Berlin

The Eisbären Berlin lost the second game of the weekend. The Sunday night game-score stopped at 5 goals to 2 for Adler Mannheim. It was a very intense game going up and down the field with only a few penalties.

The official game sheet promised an uneven encounter. Berlin arrived with 7 regular strikers missing because of injuries. Many young players had to fill the gap for the Eisbären instead. But the team rose to the challenge and demonstrated impressively why they are still the league leader. Haase, Supis, Schlenker and Veber were a good backup giving a strong performance during the equal game in terms of scoring chances. Berlin shot 36 times on goalie Fred Brathwaite. But it didn´t help – they scored only twice. Darin Olver and Barry Tallackson kept the Eisbären in the match cutting Mannheim´s lead in half at the time.

Mannheim only needed 64 seconds to convert one of their 41 shots for the game opener. Niko Dimitrakos used Yannick Seidenberg´s cross from the slot area (01:04). A few minutes later Yanick Lehoux augmented the lead by knocking in the rebound of Chris Lee´s shot (04:46). After the intermission Darin Olver cut Mannheim´s lead in half (05:46), but Lehoux scored his second goal only 51 seconds later (06:37). Things even got worse for Berlin. In his 901 career game Sven Felski tripped Matthias Plachta skating towards the goal. Referee Daniel Piechaczek signalized a shootout for Mannheim. Plachta converted this one on one chance at 11:16 of the second period. Goalie Rob Zepp had no chance to defend it. The teams relaxed in their locker rooms with the score showing 4 goals to 1. The following 15 minutes Berlin concentrated even more and activated extra energy trying to get back into the game.

Back on the ice they needed exactly 2 minutes and 28 seconds to cut Mannheim´s lead in half and to again make it exciting for the fans. They tried everything and shot from every angle and every corner in their offensive zone. Unfortunately for Berlin goalie Fred Brathwaite showed his excellent skills and secured his teams two goal lead. Mike Glumacs´s empty netter finalized the 5 goals to 2 scoring (18:15). Lets keep fingers crossed that our team can hold on to the lead of the league on Tuesday.

Ken Frege