Victory against Kölner Haie in the ice hockey playoffs: The polar bears are back

At some point Andreas Eder also ran out of explanations. No, he hasn’t actually experienced anything like that before, said the Eisbären Berlin striker last November. So many unfortunate incidents have happened, “it happens maybe once every 15 years.” The champions of the last two years in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) were hit by injuries this season.

It was clear at the start of the season that captain Kai Wissmann would be missing for months after his Achilles tendon injury, but then other important players were gradually affected. The defenders Korbinian Geibel and Markus Niemeläinen as well as Blaine Byron missed around half of the main round, while top scorer Ty Ronning missed 18 main round games. Patrick Khodorenko had the greatest bad luck: The striker, who was re-signed due to numerous absences during the season, injured his knee so badly in his fourth Eisbären appearance in October that it was already clear that he would not play again this season. Byron and Geibel will also not be returning to the ice this season. Due to the many injuries, the Eisbären, who have won four of the last five DEL titles, had to worry about direct playoff quarter-final qualification until the end of the main round. It seemed magical.

But now, in the playoffs, the polar bears are back. After the 4-2 quarter-final victory over the Straubing Tigers, the Berliners won game number one in the semi-final series against the Kölner Haie 6-3 on Wednesday evening. The Haie had dominated the main round – scoring 31 points more than the Eisbären – and they had not yet lost a game in the playoffs.

The man of the match was unexpectedly someone from the Eisbären youth team who got his chance this season due to the large number of injuries and took advantage of it: Moritz Kretzschmar. The 19-year-old defender had not yet scored a DEL goal until Wednesday – and then scored twice. “I couldn’t realize it at the beginning,” he said beamingly about his debut goal, and he only managed to do so “in the third half.” Shortly afterwards he added the second goal.

Cologne and Berlin played six playoff series against each other, five times the winner was Berlin

Kretzschmar initially only made six appearances for the Eisbären in just under six months of the season. In the remaining time he played for Berlin’s cooperation partner in the DEL2, the Lausitzer Füchse. He got a lot of ice time there: he played 34 games in the second division and also played for the German national team at the U20 World Cup in the USA.

Eisbären sports director Stephane Richer emphasized last summer, before Moritz Kretzschmar’s DFL debut year, that the club was pursuing a “long-term plan” with the talented defender. Because of the frequency of injuries, the plan took effect at short notice. Because defender Mitch Reinke was injured shortly before the end of the main round, Kretzschmar, who went to Eisbären games with his parents as a child, was called back to the first team and has played in all games since then. Kretzschmar plays hard and well, said coach Serge Aubin on Wednesday evening: “He is young, but he exudes confidence on the ice.”

In any case, Cologne, their opponents who had been so confident until then, were caught cold in their first playoff defeat. Quickly overcoming defeats is one of the basic requirements in the crucial phase of the season, but the Eisbären, historically speaking, tend to evoke mixed feelings from the Kölner Haien: both clubs have played six playoff series against each other, five times the winner was Berlin. Last year’s final series was particularly memorable – and by no means just because it is well remembered. The Berliners humiliated their opponents from Cologne: They won the last three final games 7-0.

“Of course it wasn’t nice,” Cologne captain Moritz Müller said before the semi-final series on Magentasport: “But that was last year. We don’t look back that much.” Then they conceded six goals, and Cologne goalkeeper Janne Juvonen, who was recently named DEL professional of the year, stayed in the dressing room after just two thirds. Whether the yet another major playoff defeat against Berlin has already awakened the ghosts of the past will become apparent this Friday in game number two in Cologne.

In any case, Berliners remain decidedly calm. Aubin, who as Eisbären coach has never lost a DEL playoff series, said before the start of the semi-finals that the first playoff series, i.e. the one in the quarter-finals against Straubing, is always the hardest. “Now let’s get ready and have fun,” he explained. The Polar Bears had plenty of it in game one.