EHC freeze Hamburg, sting Hannover

EHC return to the win column after blowing out Hamburg. Photo: EHC Munich

Gabriel Nounna, TMT Sports

Fri 16 Dec

(Editor's note: this article was updated Sunday, December 18, 2011 21:34 CET)

Olympia Eissportzentrum, Munich - Having lost their last 5 games EHC Munich went into this game hoping that it would not turn into 6 losses in a row. The problem was that they were going to be facing the Hamburg Freezers who just so happen to be the third best team in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

The first period was a battle of defense and offense. Both teams were hungry for a goal but neither would satisfy that hunger in the first period. With 6:33 left in the first period EHC scored a goal but the refs ruled the goal invalid because a Munich player pushed the Hamburg goalie. Thus, the first period ended scoreless, but the action picked up.

The second period started almost exactly like Munich's last game agains the Cologne Sharks. In the first 50 seconds Brandon Dietrich scored on a break away play making it 1-0 and giving EHC the confidence they would need to hold off the Freezers. Munich was unable to hold off Hamburg very long because in the 2:15 minute Garrett Festerling scored, tying the game at 1-1.

After that the game was dominated by Munich. Hamburg played with the same intensity, strength, and will as their hosts, but luck was on the home team's side.

As the Freezer's head coach Benoît Laporte said, "Munich was ready for a battle and our team was ready for a flight back home."

EHC would go on to score three unanswered goals in the 2nd period and take a commanding lead 4-1. Munich's Jason Ulmer would have the pleasure of scoring the second goal in the 8:17 minute followed by Jens Olsson 42 seconds later in the 8:59 minute. The last goal in the second period came from Klaus Kathan in the 16:32 minute.

Even though it was pretty much impossible for Hamburg to come back, they still played hard against a Munich team whose offense and defense were in total sync. One would think that in the third period Munich would start to get lazy and maybe allow Hamburg to score a goal or two. This would not be the case.

Munich went into the third period with the same intensity as the previous periods. In the 4:39 minute Brandon Dietrich would score his second and final goal of the night, which gave Munich a devestatingly large 5-1 lead. Munich was going to score as many points as the Hockey Gods would let them and they did just that in the 11:41 minute David Wrigley scored the 6th and final goal of the night.

"I am happy for our players. The last three games we lost in overtime and tonight our luck started to change," said head coach Pat Cortina regarding the game. The win snaps a 5 game losing streak. 

Three of Munich's goals came from power plays and goaltender Jochen "The Wall" Reimer stopped 35 of 36 shot attempts from the Freezers. EHC's win broke a three game losing streak against Hamburg, last time winning against the former Munich club in October 2010.

Not only was is a huge win for EHC, it was a comeback for Mike Kompon, who left the team suddenly in the summer to coach a college team in his home country of Canada. Kompon was asked back to Munich to fill in for Noah Clarke who is out with a season-ending injury.

"When I came back here, I didn't know how the reception would be, and it's been great.  Everyone has been great to me and it's great to have the win," said Kompon.

EHC took on the Scorpions in Hanover's TUI Arena on Sunday. Coming off the win on Friday, Munich was looking for back-to-back wins and they got just that by beating the Scorpions 4-0.  Kompon scored a goal, along with Eric Schneider, Martin Buchwieser who recently extended his contract with the club, and Martin Schymainski.

After another road game Friday in Wolfsburg, Munich return home on December 26th when they host the Mannheim Eagles, face-off at the Eissportzentrum is 16:30 CET.