It took Wayne Simmonds a few games to settle into his role with ETC Crimmitschau, his German home during the current NHL lockout. He’s without a doubt the best player in the 2nd Bundesliga, the second-tier league in Germany, but he had only registered one assist in his first two contests with the club.
That all changed Tuesday. Simmonds netted three assists in a 4-1 win over SC Riessersee, a team that hails from the Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, near the Austrian border.
(Interesting note: Garmisch and Partenkirchen were separate towns until Adolf Hitler forced them together prior to the 1936 Winter Olympics, which the town hosted. Great Britain (!) won ice hockey gold in those games. Canada finished with the silver and the United States finished with bronze.)
Simmonds’ first assist came on Darcy Campbell’s (another Canadian) first period goal. Crimmitschau jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second period with help from Simmonds assists on goals three and four. Riessersee scored in the third to trim the lead to 4-1, but never got any closer.
Fellow NHLer Chris Stewart didn’t register a point in the game, but he did have four penalty minutes.
