A lion’s point for the next last-minute rescue
In the third Wolfsburg duel, the Frankfurt climbers lose for the first time. But the specialists for late spectacles fight for a point.
Frankfurt – With six attackers on the ice, it actually worked again. No one can do those last-minute rushes with an extra field player for the benched keeper better than the Frankfurter Löwen, and it’s fitting for their clash with the Wolfsburg Grizzlies that this time Nathan Burns provides the late spectacle, eleven seconds from time . The better end on Thursday evening should ultimately have the guests for themselves. However, the promoted team saved one point in the first class of German ice hockey on Thursday evening, with the 4:5 (1:1, 1:1, 2:2/0:0, 0:1) after a penalty shootout in front of 4051 spectators – even if the fifth-placed Wolfsburg team pulled away a little after this hard-fought duel among their neighbors in the DEL table.
“It was a game with a play-off atmosphere,” enthused Grizzly defender Jordan Murray on Magenta-Sport, young lion striker Constantin Vogt only had something to do with the outcome: “In penalty shootouts, it can go in both directions, there we have we pulled the longer one today.”
The Löwen, who continue to play against the Kölner Haie on Sunday (2 p.m.) had fond memories of Wolfsburg, combined with a special date – the first Frankfurt DEL game since the Löwen predecessors went bankrupt twelve years ago. On September 16, they also pulled off a coup: the newcomers defeated the Champions League participants 5-2. And on their second visit to the Mittelland Canal at the beginning of November, they left the ice as winners after their goalie Jake Hildebrand not only made the Grizzlies despair on penalties.
For the third duel, now for the first time in Frankfurt, it happened that the fourth line of lions stormed back in the original line-up for the first time after all those involved had been injured. At the time, Nathan Burns, Brett Breitkreuz and Rylan Schwartz had contributed to the successful start of the season after being down 0:2 in four appropriate co-productions. A goal from Breitkreuz, the first three surprisingly otherwise from their center: Burns, more of a helper than a high scorer, symbolized the Frankfurters’ eagerness to work, their lion courage and their cohesion – virtues that led to many amazing successes in the following weeks should attend and die on Thursday were asked again.
At the next Wolfsburg reunion, the renewed Burns trio caused a lot of goal danger and a rarely lasting discussion in between: Referees Sean MacFarlane and Martin Frano bowed their heads over the screen intended for video evidence between the penalty boxes for minutes, until both finally nodded and was pointed to the center – the sign of the second goal for the lions, which was attributed to Daniel Wirt, after preliminary work by Schwartz and Burns. Whether the puck had actually crossed the line all the way, whether the host had possibly done something wrong sliding into guest goalie Dustin Strahlmeier or whatever – the referees checked everything until this equalizer came into effect 13 seconds before the end of the second period.
“That was an important goal for us,” Dylan Wruck said shortly afterwards in an interview with Magenta-Sport. For the first time there was congratulations on the 100th DEL_Scorerpunkt – in the third minute Wruck had given Dominik Bokk the puck, which hit from the turn, which is worth seeing. We then slipped through the target, Wolfsburg scored through Laurin Braun to make it 1-1 (10th) and later in the power play through Trevor Mingoia (37th), just before the expected video session. But that’s not all: as soon as the third period had started, a deflected shot by ex-Frankfurter Luis Schinko landed in the Löwen goal, only 20 seconds later in Breitkreuz.
Murray scored another Wolfsburg goal (56th). And then head coach Gerry Fleming unleashed the concentrated storm power of his first and fourth row, a rare scenario, without a defender – and Wolfsburg specialist Burns dug the puck into the goal with a lion’s will. It shouldn’t be enough for more, but this rescue act was good for one point. And the spectacle value even higher.