Dresden is subject to Cologne
On matchday 19, the game plan took the Dresden Ice Lions to Cologne. The Sharks had the same line-up as on Friday, with Andrew Yogan returning to the squad to replace the injured CJ Suess. Jussi Olkinuora was in goal for the Saxons from the start, who prevented the home team from scoring an early goal in the second minute. Shortly afterwards, the Ice Lions had their first good opportunity: Drew LeBlanc took a shot, but narrowly missed the goal. A little later, Matthias Pischoff received the first penalty of the game for hooking. Cologne tried to take the lead in the power play, but Dresden defended with concentration and survived being outnumbered. Dane Fox had the next chance, but his shot landed on the side netting. The blue-whites then had to operate outnumbered again – this time Simon Karlsson was hit after being tripped up. The Sharks took advantage of this power play and Patrick Russell gave his team a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute. Cologne then created further opportunities, but Olkinuora remained alert. With the narrow deficit we finally went into the first break.
In the middle third, the Saxons had the chance to equalize, but the puck didn’t find its way into the opponent’s goal. Instead, Frederik Storm scored for Cologne in the 24th minute. Shortly afterwards, Russell (25th) and Gregor MacLeod (29th) increased the score to 4-0 for the Haie.
In the 35th minute, the referees awarded penalties after stick checks on both sides. Trevor Parkes had to take a break for the Eislöwen and Maximilian Kammerer for Cologne. Shortly before the second half-time siren, the Ice Lions had another opportunity to shorten the score, but the puck hit the post. So after 40 minutes the score remained 4-0.
At the beginning of the final third, 55 seconds had been played when Cologne’s Oliwer Kaski had to go to the penalty box for being hit with a stick. However, Dresden were unable to take advantage of the power play that followed. In the 50th minute Russell increased again for the Haie. Shortly afterwards, Tomas Andres received a penalty for holding. Thanks to a strong save from Olkinuora, the Ice Lions survived the outnumbered game without conceding a goal. In the end, the Haie secured a clear 5-0 win.
Niklas Sundblad, head coach of the Dresden Ice Lions: “Cologne deserved to win today. We were a step too slow in the defensive zone for long stretches. We wanted to do better in the second third and quickly conceded the 2-0 and 3-0 – of course it will be difficult after that. Nevertheless, the boys never stopped fighting. Now it’s time to keep working hard and give everything for the win on Wednesday.”
Photo: Daniel Schäfer / City Press
