ERC Ingolstadt took all three points against Iserlohn Roosters on Friday evening, winning 4-3 in the DEL. The visitors held their nerve in the closing stages to complete a result that had looked uncertain for much of the game. It is a sharp start to the season for both sides, though the table will tell only so much with zero games logged so far.
By then the visitors had shown they could handle pressure. They had lost 5-1 to Frankfurt on the twelfth and been edged 4-3 by Zug four days earlier, but the response against Iserlohn carried a different weight. The hosts had won their last two comfortably, beating Kassel and Nuremberg both 4-2, yet they could not find a clean sheet or a clean break.
And here's the thing about the prediction we gave: we called an away win at 51 per cent confidence. It is not a number that commands reverence, but it was close enough. Ingolstadt worked the final period a man up, as the game opened up, and that is where the difference appeared.
The visitors' recent record showed vulnerability — losses to Bern and a narrow defeat in Zurich — but they also produced a 5-1 demolition of Nuremberg and a comeback win over Linz. The form is uneven, as it always is at this stage, and the table will only begin to mean something once there are points to compare.
To be fair, the hosts had momentum from their previous outings. They had won at home against Wolfsburg and beaten Liberec in a tight 1-0, then lost their last two fixtures to Krefeld and Frankfurt. The result on Friday means they start with nothing gained and everything still to prove.
The scoreline does not lie, though it does not tell the whole story either. Ingolstadt are now a point ahead, though that is meaningless until the second round arrives. The gap between these two sides remains as it was: one game, one result, nothing more.
