By Frank Johne

Munich, Germany - They have beaten 12 of their 13 DEL opponents. But against the Mannheim Adler, the first-place Nürnberg Ice Tigers just can't seem to figure out a way to win. Riding on a five-game win streak, Greg Poss' team looked sluggish Sunday as it lost its third of four regular season meetings with Mannheim. The second-place Kölner Haie and third-place Berlin Eisbären failed to gain ground on Nürnberg though, both suffering unexpected losses on the road. Elsewhere in the German Elite League, Ingolstadt's goaltender Jimmy Waite continued to close in on the single-season record for shutouts.

Steve Kelly scored at 5:12 of the third period and Devin Edgerton and René Corbet added late goals as the Mannheim Adler skated to a 4-1 (0-0, 1-1, 3-0) road win over the Nürnberg Ice Tigers. Nuremberg's league-leading power-play was shut out, going 0-for-8 on the night. After a scoreless opening frame, Mannheim cashed in on the man advantage to take a 1-0 lead at 14:19 of the second when defender Chris Joseph fired a high wrister from the left face-off dot over Adam Svoboda's glove hand. Nuremberg responded just 48 seconds later when Lubomir Sekeras' low, screened shot from the left slot beat Cristobal Huet through the legs. The Adler regained a 2-1 lead after a fine solo effort by Kelly who took the puck through the neutral zone and ripped a hard wrister past Svoboda. Mannheim put the game out of reach, 3-1, with 4:01 remaining. Coming out of the right corner, Jochen Hecht passed the puck to Devin Edgerton who slipped a low shot from the slot under Svoboda's right blocker. With 41 ticks left, Corbet sealed the win with an empty-netter.

Adding injury to insult, the Ice Tigers also learned Sunday that Latvian forward Herbert Vasiljevs, who's among the top-15 scorers in the DEL with 32 points (13G, 19A) in 33 games, may miss the remainder of the season after suffering a dislocated shoulder in Friday's game at Hamburg.

Coming off a 48-save performance in Friday's loss at Frankfurt, Alexander Jung turned aside 30 shots en route to his second shutout of the season as the DEG Metro Stars blanked the Kölner Haie 3-0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0) at home. Daniel Kreutzer and defenseman Jeff Tory each had a goal and an assist on the night. Special teams made the difference in a tight, hard-fought game. Tory fired a high point shot past Chris Rogles on the man advantage to put the Stars up 1-0 3:57 into the middle frame. Düsseldorf doubled the lead when Kreutzer tallied on the power-play again with 7:33 to go in the game. Haie head coach Hans Zach pulled Rogles for an extra attacker on power-play opportunity with five minutes left in the contest. It backfired however. Andy Schneider capped the scoring at 3-0 with a short-handed empty-netter 3:49 from the final horn.

Jimmy Waite recorded his eight shutout bringing him one shy of tying the DEL single-season shutout record of nine. He made 27 saves, backstopping ERC Ingolstadt to its fourth straight win, a 3-0 (2-0, 0-0, 1-0) road victory over the Kassel Huskies, who have lost three in a row. The win came at a high price, though, as Ingolstadt lost forward Doug Ast with a hand injury. Günther Oswald scored on a 2-on-1 odd-man rush with Greg Ferguson to put Ingolstadt in front, 1-0, 5:38 into the contest. They doubled the lead with 37 seconds left in the opening frame when defenseman Ken Sutton re-directed a shot by Nicki Mondt into the Husky net. Ingolstadt got a lucky bounce when Glen Goodall went for the rebound of an Oswald shot and the puck bounced off the back of Husky netminder Joaquin Gage and into the net to make it 3-0 at 4:55 of the third.

Jason Cipolla's power-play goal with 2:19 left in the second period turned out the game-winner as the last-place Hannover Scorpions snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-2 (1-1, 2-1, 2-0) home win over the Berlin Eisbären. Cipolla had three points on the night. His team-mate Robert Hock scored a pair of goals.

Augsburg appeared to be the lucky winner of a tight game when Francois Methot's goal put the Panthers up 2-1 over Hamburg with only 2:22 remaining in the game. But Craig Johnson scored 33 seconds before the buzzer to force the contest into a penalty shootout, in which the Hamburg Freezers prevailed 3-2 (0-1, 1-0, 1-1, 1-0) over the Augsburger Panther. Robert Francz scored the game-winning goal. Augsburg remained winless for the 4th straight game.

The Frankfurt Lions also needed the extra session in their 4-3 (2-2, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0) road win over Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg. Martin Reichel tallied the game-tying goal with 4:09 left in the third, just seconds after Wolfsburg killed off a penalty, and Pat Lebeau notched the GWG in the penalty shootout to seal Frankfurt's fifth straight win.

Coming off a two-goal game Friday, defenseman Daniel Kunce scored on the man advantage with 1:41 remaining to lift the Krefeld Pinguine to a 4-3 (1-2, 1-1, 2-0) comeback win on the road over the Iserlohn Roosters. Steve Brulé (1G, 2A), Guy Lehoux and Rob Guillet (short-handed) also scored as Krefeld erased a 3-1 second-period deficit to take away points from a potential rival in the battle for a playoff berth.