Köln beat Ingolstadt 3:6 in the DEL on Sunday, a result that flips whatever small confidence the hosts might have carried into their own match. We had given home victory at 46 per cent, but the game ran the other way and stayed there.
Ingolstadt started with the kind of urgency that comes from sitting in twelfth with two wins and three defeats, though the table hardly tells the full story when both sides carry zero points after five rounds. Köln arrived in similar territory, eleventh with the same record, and neither side had much to lose.
The visitors took control early and never let go. And here's the thing about a scoreline like that — when one team scores three goals each period, you're looking at a complete tactical shift, not a late rally. Köln camped in the final third from the first whistle and simply worked the puck harder.
Ingolstadt's recent results show a pattern of narrow margins — a 3:2 win over Mannheim, a 4:3 victory against Iselhorn, even a 1:3 loss to Krefeld that could have gone either way. But against Köln they paid for a sloppy opening and never recovered. To be fair, Köln's own form has been volatile: 6:4 against Augsburg, 5:6 lost to Berlin, 4:8 against Wolfsburg. Both teams trade goals freely.
The away end never stopped. By then the game had settled into a rhythm where Köln's structure held while Ingolstadt's shape broke down. Three goals each period is not an accident — it is a system working against one that has found its rhythm.
That leaves Köln on the edge of the top half and Ingolstadt still searching for consistency. Six goals conceded away from home will not go unnoticed in the dressing room.
