TItel defender Eisbären Berlin stopped Adler Mannheim’s race to catch up in the semifinals and made it into the final series of the German Ice Hockey League for the twelfth time. The Berliners won the decisive fifth duel on Thursday evening 3-0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0).
Manuel Wiederer (21st minute) and Blaine Byron (46th/60th) provided the necessary third win with their goals. “The squad is really strong mentally. We know what we want,” said Berlin’s national goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger at MagentaSport. National striker Marcel Noebels said: “We played very well and took our chances.”
Having taken the lead in the series with two wins, the Berliners had already looked like a surefire contender. However, the Mannheimers had won matches three and four and forced the decisive duel with the 2:2 equalizer.
In the decisive game, the Adler played another hard-fought game in front of 10,035 spectators, but did not score a goal. The hoped-for complete turnaround after a 0:2 in a best-of-five series, which only happened twice in the DEL, remained unachieved. “We just made one more mistake,” said Mannheim’s Korbinian Holzer: “That’s bitter then.”
This Friday (7:30 p.m./MagentaSport), the winner of the main round, Berlin, welcomes the runners-up in the main round, EHC Red Bull Munich, to the first final. The Munich team has been a finalist since last Sunday.
Unlike before the corona pandemic, the playoffs will be played in best-of-five instead of best-of-seven mode. Three wins are necessary to win the championship. The new master will be determined on May 2nd at the earliest and on May 5th at the latest.
