DEL Playoffs: Cologne and Berlin in the finals

While the playoffs in the NHL are just getting started the German DEL is already in the final stages. The past few years haven't been very interesting in the domestic league with Adler Mannheim and Eisbären Berlin splitting up titles every year. It has been especially frustrating for my local team, Kölner Haie, who enter a season each year as one of the big favourites and then fail miserably in the playoffs. They won their last title (of eight in total) in 2002 and have made some impressive shots at the championship since then, but there weren't successful at all. At least they could find comfort in the fact that their eternal rivals from Düsseldorf, the DEG, haven't won anything either. Both teams were the dominating forces in German Ice Hockey in the 1980s and the early 1990s.
The draw for the playoffs offered the opportunity for a final which might have included those old rivals, but it wasn't meant to be. Still these playoffs seem to have been the most intense ones in a long time. Lots of overtime matches, one game in the quarterfinal matchup between Haie and Adler Mannheim going in to a record 7th overtime. Lots of close series, especially the one between the Frankfurt Lions and the Iserlohn Roosters (4-3) in which quite a few games went to overtime. So everything is set for a great final series which is a best-of-five game series.
Berlin and Cologne got at each other right from the start with the Haie getting a 10 minute suspension for Todd Warriner after only 2 minutes of play. This match was decided in a sudden death again and now the Eisbären lead the series 1-0. Still the euphoria in Cologne is huge. The team already sold 17.000 tickets in advance for Game 2 when the series will come to Cologne tonight. They seemed to have problems filling their arena over the season but now fans are eager for a championship team in this city. With the local football club struggling to get promoted to the first division and the local basketball team being on the verge of bankrupcy at the end of last year people look for a team which will give them something to celebrate. Because that's something the people of Cologne really like to do.