Munich, Germany - The league lead is changing quickly that early in the season. Gameday seven saw the Berlin Eisbären climb to the top of the table with their fifth victory in seven games. Back-to-back second period goals paved the way for Berlin’s win over fellow playoff contender Düsseldorf Friday night. The Eisbären took advantage of Mannheim’s surprising loss in Hannover. The best record in the league belongs to Kassel, though.

After blanking the slumping Nuremberg Ice Tigers 3-0 Thursday night, the Kassel Huskies now have 15 points out of six games, which ties them with Berlin and Mannheim, who have already played one more game. Berlin leads the pack because of the better goal differential.

The struggling Ice Tigers looked hapless as Kassel skated to a dominating 3-0 (1-0, 2-0, 0-0) home win behind goals from Zdenek Nedved, Doug Derraugh and Andrej Teljukin.

DEL’s oldest player stuns Mannheim

40-year-old Wally Schreiber, the DEL’s oldest player, scored twice and Fredrik Öberg had three assists as the Hannover Scorpions stunned the Mannheim Adler 4-1 (2-1, 2-0, 0-0). Mannheim outshot the hosts, but only managed to beat Scorpions goalie Andrew Verner once.

The Berlin Eisbären took advantage of Mannheim’s slip-up and moved to the number one spot with a 2-1 (0-0, 2-1, 0-0) win over the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars. Despite dominating the first twenty minutes, the Eisbären failed to get on the scoreboard and saw the momentum turn the other way when defender Martin Ullrich got the Stars ahead in the second period. But Berlin bounced back well. Within only 73 seconds, back-to-back goals by Steve Walker and defender Ricard Persson gave the Eisbären a 2-1 lead. Berlin blew several good opportunities thereafter, but hung on to the lead.

Augsburg routs Frankfurt, Cologne still in slump

Although they underwent a huge overhaul during the off-season, the Augsburg Panthers seem to repeat on last year’s good start. They are only a point behind the top trio and looked impressive, crushing the Frankfurt Lions 7-2 (1-0, 2-1, 4-1) at home. The game was pretty close till youngster Ronny Arendt, who also had an assist, scored back-to-back powerplay goals shortly before and after the final intermission that gave the Panthers a 4-1 lead. Pierre-Claude Drouin also had a three-point night.

The Krefeld Pinguine were able to snap their five-game losing streak with a 4-3 (2-1, 0-0, 1-2, 1-0) win after penalty shootout against defending champion Kölner Haie. Cologne picked up a point for the regulation tie, but has yet to break out of its recent slump, dropping its fourth straight game.

Hamburg storms to first win

After four winless games and the worst start in franchise history, the Hamburg Freezers finally managed to get the monkey off their backs. Defenseman Jeff Tory scored two early goals and also had two assists as the Freezers emphatically ended their bad streak, blanking Iserlohn on the road, 6-0 (2-0, 2-0, 2-0). Scott Lachance, Andy Schneider, Jacek Plachta and Tom Dolak also had multiple point games as Hamburg turned its first win into a rout, despite being outshot by the Roosters. Netminder Boris Rousson, one of only eight former Munich Barons on the team, turned aside 28 shots and recorded his first shutout of the season. Hamburg remains in last place, though.

“Tonight,” Hamburg’s coach Sean Simpson said, “we managed to play 60 minutes. We stayed focussed till the end. That was the main difference to the previous games. I’m very content with my team’s performance.”

Ingolstadt extends win-streak

With its second overtime win in a week, expansion team ERC Ingolstadt extended its current win streak to three games. Jean-Francois Jomphe converted the game-winning penalty shot as Ingolstadt downed the Schwenningen Wild Wings on the road, 3-2 (1-0, 0-1, 1-1, 1-0). Defenseman Chad Allen’s powerplay tally gave Ingolstadt an early lead, but Dave Chyzowksi got the hosts back into the game with a powerplay score late in the second period. Glen Goodall reclaimed the lead for Ingolstadt in the final period, but Schwenningen’s Jens Stramkowski came up with the 2-2 equalizer at 09:04 of the final period to send the game into a shootout decision.