Frankfurt Löwen made a statement on their DEL opener with a 5:0 victory over Schwenningen on Thursday evening. The result puts the visitors top of the table after one game, while the hosts sit bottom with nothing to show for their opening fixture. It was not the start either side expected, and by then the pattern was clear enough to read.
Schwenningen had looked lively in their warm-up matches, beating Schur 6:1 and Ravensburg 6:3 before the season proper began. To be fair, those games offered comfort rather than proof against DEL competition. The reality arrived quickly on this night, and the visitors changed the tempo from the opening whistle.
Without detailed minute-by-minute records I cannot trace every shift in momentum, but the scoreboard tells the story. Frankfurt Löwen found a way back into it after the first period and never looked back. The hosts switched off at a set piece and were left exposed for the goals that followed.
Statistics would show possession and shots, but the match was decided in those three or four moments that separate a comfortable win from a collapse. Frankfurt Löwen were dominant in the air from set plays and made Schwenningen pay every time they got a chance. The hosts never found a rhythm to challenge back.
The prediction before kick-off gave Schwenningen a 56 per cent chance of victory, and that forecast has gone up in smoke. What broke it was not a single error but a team that simply could not match the visitors' intensity across sixty minutes. Frankfurt Löwen saw it out and now sit alone at the summit of the DEL standings.
