DEL playoff moments: EHC Red Bull München vs Eisbären Berlin 2017/18

Tuesday, 12. March 2024 | DEL playoff moments: EHC Red Bull München vs Eisbären Berlin 2017/18

Playoff moments, part two: Title showdown in game sevenOne, Two, Hattrick!// PLAYOFF-MOMENTSPlayoffs, baby! On 16 March, the Red Bulls kick off the "hottest time" of the year. To get you in the right mood, we take a look back at some very special playoff series. Part two tells our story from game seven!

A sold-out Oberwiesenfeld, final game seven, "Do or Die", Munich against Berlin. That's as good as it gets in German ice hockey! For the second time since 2014 (when Ingolstadt beat Cologne 4:3), a final series in the PENNY DEL went over seven games, and it was also the first game seven in our club's history.

The following 60 minutes on the afternoon of April 26, 2018 were to be the ultimate showdown in the last PENNY DEL game of the 2017/18 season. With a beaming winner who refused to be rattled after two previous setbacks. But first things first.

Two match pucks unused

In the six previous duels, the two teams were on an equal footing. The Eisbären took game one in Munich, while the Red Bulls responded with three wins in a row to snatch two match points.

Servus Eisstadion | Die Red Bulls verabschieden sich vom Olympia-Eisstadion

// HIGHLIGHTS

Berlin fended off the first one on April 22 at the Olympic Ice Stadium. Keith Aucoin brought us into overtime with his 5:5 equalizer in the 55th minute. There Jamie MacQueen scored for his colors. Long faces on the Munich side, jubilation for the Eisbären.

And the German capital took this momentum back to the Spree. Because Berlin also won game six, with a 5:3 score on the Mercedes-Benz Arena scoreboard after 60 minutes. Decision postponed again.

The final act: title or tears

So the series went back to Oberwiesenfeld. It began there almost two weeks ago and this is where it was to end. With two match pucks saved and two wins in a row, the momentum was on the side of the Eisbären.

And after Micki DuPont made it 0:1 in the twelfth minute on the powerplay, the Red Bulls' pressure increased. Until our boys flipped the switch on the counter-attack and put the pedal to the metal!

Here we go: Konrad Abeltshauser responded immediately with the equalizer. Playoff MVP Jon Matsumoto with his sixth goal in the final series and Steve Pinizzotto followed up with a double (16th/17th), Mads Christensen even made it 4:1 for an unleashed Munich at the first break. Breathe a sigh of relief, that looked good!

And yes, the team of our then coach Don Jackson now had everything under control. Pinizzotto scored again in the powerplay (28') and the champagne could slowly be chilled. When Brooks Macek scored Berlin's second goal in the 47th minute to make it 6:2, the story was told and the title hat-trick was complete.

The final siren sounded and the championship party could begin to the sounds of "Rockin All Over The World" for the third year in a row!

A record title collector

Frank Mauer was once again in the middle of the jubilant crowd on the ice. As always, you could almost say. Because the attacker, who ended his career in August 2023, lifted the championship trophy for the fourth time in a row. To date, only Alexander Serikov, who also won four titles in a row between 1997 and 2000, has managed to do so.

Mauer won his first championship with Adler Mannheim in 2015, before moving to Munich in the same year. Three more championships in a row followed in the Bavarian capital.

"You work towards it for so long. You don't win anything for years and suddenly you're in the thick of it. I'm incredibly proud to have been a part of it. I was able to play in great teams," said Mauer in a TV interview directly after game seven. Before disappearing into a shower of confetti and treating himself to a winner's beer. Cheers!