EHC Overpowered by Mannheim and Wolfsburg
Power-play goals lead to two losses
Olympia Eissportzentrum, November 28 - James Pollock scored two power play goals, including the winner in the 2nd period, as Mannheim Eagles beat EHC München 6-2 Friday night. Mannheim move up to 5th in the standings with 36 points while Munich drop to 8th. On Sunday, Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg scored two more power-play goals against EHC and won 3-0.
Against Mannheim, Munich started the match with more intensity than the visitors, attacking the goal from faceoff. Their hot start paid off when Eric Scnneider was able to get one past Fredrick Brathwaite after three minutes. Schneider had a couple of more chances that went wide but EHC did not get frustrated. Mannheim were not able to organize themselves and gave up a Christian Wichert goal to make it 2-0 for the home side.
"I thought we played the best 20 minutes of the season in the first period," stated Munich coach Pat Cortina. "But 20 minutes is not enough."
Nathan Robinson was able to get one back for Mannheim with 4:33 left in the 1st period and the momentum shift carried over into the rest of the match. Munich penalties and lack of effort let the Eagles take control. Power play goals by Mario Scalzo (9:24) and James Pollock (5:20) put Mannheim up 3-2 at the end of two periods.
The Eagles finished off Munich in the final stanza with two goals within 19 seconds of each other. The first one off a turnover behind the goal. By the time Pollock's slapshot with 4:48 left in the game went in to finish off the scoring, EHC were already beaten.
EHC traveled to Wolfsburg Sunday evening and it seemed the team was still hungover from Friday, going down 1-0 after only 8 minutes. Ken Megowan scored his 7th power-play goal of the season. Jason Ulmer added another power-play goal - also in the 8th minute, also his 7th of the season - and Andreas Morczinietz finished off the scoring midway in the 2nd period.
München remain 8th in the table and hope to turn things around when they return home on Tuesday to host the Krefeld Penguins. "We are not going to worry about (the losses). We've been pretty successful as a group and we've stuck together," said Munich forward Bryan Adams after the loss Friday. "We have to get back to what we were doing when we were winning." Face off is at 19:30 tomorrow at the Olympia Eissportzentrum.
Gabriel Nounna contributed to this article.