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What a start to the New Year in the DEL! Cathedral against Rheinturm, Alaaf against Helau, 17,121 fans, Cologne against Düsseldorf. The Haie broke the home curse against their arch-rivals, because they have not won on their own ice since October 20, 2019 (4: 1). But now the KEC prevailed 5:2 (2:1, 1:0, 2:1).
The problems of the DEG in the game structure and in the transition moments were already noticed in the opening third. The Haie seemed to have coped better with the turn of the year, were more physically present, more variable in the game and more powerful in the final situations. Almost every shot was extremely dangerous and Düsseldorf couldn’t fight their way into the game. Guest goalkeeper Henrik Haukeland had to distinguish himself several times and was under constant fire. The DEG had lost its compactness on the defensive and often a Haie player was completely free and alone in the slot. Then, to make matters worse, there was a 2-minute suspension from a Düsseldorfer and Cologne had the opportunity to convert their superiority into a goal. But a disc win by DEG player Stephen MacAulay brought the guests a surprising 1-0 lead. Goal scorer Tobias Eder picked up his pass, rounded ex-DEG goalkeeper Mirko Pantkowski and netted with the backhand. The Domstädter stayed true to their style of play and scored the deserved 1-1 equalizer through Andreas Thuresson after ten minutes. The Haie goalscorer also has a DEG past. Cologne continued to dominate the game and got back on the scoreboard seven minutes later when Brady Austin scored a 2-1 lead.
The middle third is actually the parade third of the state capitals, but it should not be confirmed this time. The hosts continued to dictate the game and scored the goal on the power play to make it 3-1. It only took five seconds and Louis-Marc Aubry was able to score. Of course, a blow to the neck for Düsseldorf, but the hosts didn’t score another goal and DEG kept trying to get into the derby flow. At times it got a little better and the guests tried to get closer to the second sense of achievement. The shots fired shouldn’t be really dangerous or it often took red and yellow too long to even come to an end. In terms of earnings, this third went to the Haie. Nevertheless, you had the feeling that if Düsseldorf had struck in the second 20 minutes, things would get interesting again. But with this third win by the hosts, the siren sounded.
Thus the final third began and the actions of the guests became a bit more purposeful, but the puck didn’t want to go back into the Cologne goal net for the time being and then landed in the mesh on the other side. David McIntyre used a renewed majority to perhaps decide the 4:1. But the “maybe” could be changed to “not yet” eight minutes before the end of the game. Because then the Düsseldorfers scored their second goal. Stephen MacAulay made the approximately 1000 DEG fans cheer again with the 4:2 goal. After all, there were still eight minutes to play and anything was possible. There were actually other good opportunities to get Cologne into trouble again, but even in these sequences of the game the disc had its own interests and didn’t find its way into the goal. So Düsseldorf didn’t have much time left and then, as expected, pulled out all the stops. DEG took their goalkeeper off the ice and wanted to put Cologne under pressure with a six-on-five game. A disc loss in the build-up allowed the Haie to snap again: Jason Bast completed the 5:2 final victory into an empty goal. The bottom line is that Cologne consistently followed through with their game plan and Düsseldorf was unable to implement their plan. Thus, the Domstadters take the lead in the series after three matches and DEG can still equalize the series in the fourth comparison. It didn’t work out this time.
But first things go on Wednesday. The Düsseldorfer EG welcomes the CHL participant Straubing Tigers and the Kölner Haie have to go to the German champions, the Eisbären Berlin.