National team captain Moritz Müller celebrated a resounding victory in his 1000th game in the German Ice Hockey League with the Kölner Haie.

On Friday evening, the Haie won their captain's anniversary game 8-2 (3-0, 4-1, 1-1) at the Iserlohn Roosters, who suffered a serious setback in the fight for play-off qualification. The Haie are almost certainly in the pre-playoff round thanks to the clear and well-deserved success.

Even before the game, the Roosters handed out gifts and honored the 36-year-old Müller - not exactly a crowd favorite in Sauerland - for his career milestone. "You can't always choose where you play the 1000th game. That's a special situation," said Müller before the game at MagentaSport in view of the rejection of the Iserlohn audience against him: "But you have to work for it."

A few years ago, Müller criticized the controversial naturalization practice in Iserlohn and disparagingly described the Roosters as "Canada's 1c team" because of the large number of German-Canadians. In a nod to this, the Roosters mascot honored "Icey" with a Canada national jersey printed with "1c" before the game.