Disappointing finish to the regular season
“It´s not an easy place to play”, Iserlohn´s right winger Chris Connolly commented. “We had a chance to secure a top-six spot on Friday already and missed it. Obviously both teams searched to win the three points. Coming into the game we knew that it was going to be a hard disputed. To earn a top-six spot means that you did a good job during the regular season. I am happy to have some rest in the next couple of days”.
The Eisbären Berlin lost their last game of the regular season 2-3 against the Iserlohn Roosters. They will face the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers Nürnberg in the pre-playoffs. The best-of-three series begins with a road game on Wednesday. “We were the dominating team during the whole 60 minutes”, André Rankel stated. “We weren´t able to capitalize on our chances. The post season starts tomorrow”.
With 4:11 into the first the Iserlohn Roosters opened the scoring. Brodie Dupont carried it into the offensive zone undisturbed. Waiting patiently he found twine with a well aimed shot into the far corner from the right crease. Later on the referee´s called an unnecessary roughness minor penalty on Berlin´s Henry Haase (07:07). Being shorthanded the home team kept pressuring and converted it into success. Only 12 seconds later Julian Talbot equalized it at 1. Guest´s Austrian goalie Mathias Lange blocked T.J. Mulock´s wrister with his left pad but was unable to interfere with Julian Talbot´s quick snapper from short distance (07:19).
The Roosters´ Kevin Lavallée´s backhander renewed the one goal lead midway off the second. Mike York found his teammate with a deep pass through two defensemen. Lavallée picked it up and outplayed goalie Petri Vehanen with a stick handling move to the left side (13:19). The home team needed some time to find again some crucial answers. With Rooster Boris Blank serving a minor penalty for interference at the beginning of the third Casey Borer used the man advantage to get on the score sheet. Berlin´s power play unit assumed their position and played some tic-tac. Borer received Barry Tallackson´s set up through the goal crease standing free at the low slot area. The defender didn´t have any problems to push it over the goal line (04:19). They continued pressuring hard but weren´t able to capitalize on their innumerous scoring chances. With 02:34 minutes remaining in regulation the referee´s called a minor penalty for knee-checking on Iserlohn´s Brodie Dupont. In search for the three points Head Coach Uwe Krupp pulled his goalie Vehanen. But unfortunately his players’ couldn´t use their advantage. Chad Bassen picked it up in his defensive zone and finalized the 3-2 victory with a long shot from central ice into the empty net (19:48).
Ken Frege