Florida Panthers center Marcel Goc (pictured above) returned after a three game absence to set up a goal during Alder Mannheim’s 2-1 road win over ERC Ingolstadt in Friday action from the D.E.L. (German Elite League). Skating on a line with Adam Mitchell and Yannic Seidenberg, Goc fired one shot on goal, picked up a roughing minor and finished the game with a +1 rating. Early in the first period, Goc set up defenseman Steven Wagner to give Adler Mannheim a 1-0 lead at the 1:13 mark. Adam Mitchell picked up the secondary assist on the goal. Sean O’ Connor replied for Ingolstadt five minutes later on the power play with Yannic Seidenberg serving a checking to the head penalty. Yanick Lehoux would put Mannheim back on top just ninety-eight seconds later with assists going to Matthias Plachta and Doug Janik. Dennis Endras stopped 33 shots to lead Adler to victory and was named first star of the game for his heroics. Markus Janka made 14 saves in taking the loss for Ingolstadt. The win moved Adler Mannheim within one point of first place Kolner in the D.E.L. standings.
Filip Kuba had another strong game defensively but his Vitkovice Steel club fell 2-1 in a shootout to HC Energie Karlovy Vary in Friday action from the Czech Extraliga. Kuba was paired with Karol Sloboda this time out and again finished with a +1 rating. Visiting Vitkovice jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on a Viktor Ujcik goal which was set up by Lukas Klimak. Lukas Pech scored late in the third period for Karlovy Vary to knot the game up at one. After a scoreless overtime and no conversions in the first round of the shootout, Ujcik scored in the second round for Vitkovice only to see Martin Zatovic reply for Karlovy. In the third round Vitkovice’s Jiri Burger was stopped by Tomas Zavorka while Petr Pohl beat Filip Sindelar to give Karlovy Vary the win. Kuba has no points and a +2 rating in two games with Vitkovice.
Note: Dmitry Kulikov did not play in Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s 2-1 overtime win over Lev today.