MUNICH - GERMANY:- After a 0 point weekend following the Deutschland Cup, against Ingolstadt (0-3) and Hamburg (1-0), EHC Munich had also to deal with a season-ending injury to Noah Clarke.

Clark, already carrying a shoulder injury from pre-season, broke down again after the game against Ingolstadt. Because the doc said he can’t play again this season, manager Christian Winkler had to look for a replacement, and he found one.

Jan Benda, one of the most glamorous names in the past 20 years of ice hockey in Germany.

He took part in 9 world cups, 3 Olympic games (in total 98 appearances) and played in teams in Canada , USA (AHL: Binghampton, Richmond and 9 games in the NHL: Washington Wizards), the Czech league, in Finland, Russia and Germany.

In 1994 he played with Didi Hegen, Bernd Trunschka and other big German and European stars in Munich, where he won the championship with Hedos Munich. The now 39-old journeyman allrounder (he can play as forward and defence) is on a loan from the Nuremberg Icetigers, where he had problems with coach Peter Dreisaitl.

And the routine of Benda obviously brought some Hedos-spirit to the team to get back on the tracks. On Friday, Munich had to play against the Cologne Sharks, and in front of 3088 fans in the Olympic Ice hall, the home team started as the heroes from the past.

It took just 47 seconds when Klaus Kathan got the puck at the blue line, crossed the face-off circle and scored with his specialty, a wrist shot into the far corner of the goal.

In the next 15 minutes, Cologne got chippy and were penalised heavily, for example when Brett Breitkreuz checked 18-year old youngster Andi Pauli into the players bench, he got a match penalty.

Pauli was taken from the ice on a barrow but later he was able to skate on his own feet to the cabin. The 5 minute powerplay was used well by his teammates when Ulli Maurer tried to shoot from the right side, almost missed the puck, but Brandon Dietrich was lucky and scored for the 2-0 lead in the first period.

In the second, Cologne played cleverer game than in the first and ex-Munich-player Kevin Lavallee scored his first goal of the season on a powerplay.

But the home team wasn’t shocked by this and it was again the duo Maurer and Dietrich who regained the distance between the teams when Dietrich scored again after a deflected shot of Maurer.

With this goal, the spirit of the sharks was broken and in the third period man of the match Ulli Maurer got his well-earned goal for a final result of 4-1.

After the press conference, manager Winkler announced, that Munich's all-time top scorer Mike Kompon will come back to the Bavarian capital and gets a contract until the end of the season, with an option for one more year.

Kompon surprisingly stayed in Canada after the summer break when he got an offer to work as a college coach, but after the offer from Winkler he thought that he is too young to stop playing hockey.

The only problem will be that George Kink now playes with the number 17 on the jersey, but this problem will also be solved I think.

On Sunday, the EHC had to play at the Mannheim Eagles. The Eagles had to play with just 5 defenders after injuries for Steven Wagner and others, and the home team decided to seek salvation on the offensive, and it looked like they were to be successful with this strategy. 

EHC had to take one penalty after another, but Jochen Reimer and his defensive denied chance after chance. But in the 18th minute, Michael Glumac was free in the slot and got a pass of Nicolai Goc for the score.

But in the second period, the game changed totally. After just 5 shots on the goal of Freddy Brathwaite, EHC Munich shot 19 times, and one of them was successful. Jens Olsson first denied a chance in his own third, passed the puck to David Wrigley, he forwards it to Martin Schymainski and his pass finds Olsson who scored the equalizer.

The last period was like the shoot statistic shows, with 10 to 11 shots, very balanced. And so, the game went to the penalty shootout, where Adam Mitchell scored the game winning goal for the home team.

The game was so close, that both teams could win it, and so Munich's coach Pat Cortina was not unhappy with the point.

Contact: robin.hilger@prohockeynews.com