Munich, Germany - Being the better of two poor teams was good enough for the Kassel Huskies to snap their six-game losing streak at Ingolstadt Thursday night. No changes on top of the table as the all the favorites skated to victories.

Boris Blank scored two goals as the league-leading Berlin Eisbären cruised to a 6-2 (2-1, 2-1, 2-0) home win over the Hannover Scorpions. Edvin Frylen gave the Scorpions a 1-0 lead. But late first-period powerplay tallies from Blank and Rob Shearer turned the momentum.

Ilja Vorobjev and Devin Edgerton both had a goal and an assist as the second-place Mannheim Adler downed the Schwenningen Wild Wings 3-2 (1-0, 2-1, 0-1) on the road. After clearly dominating the first thirty minutes, Mannheim decided to sit back after Mike Kennedy made it 3-0 midway through the second. The Wings came close after tallies from Christian Kohmann and Francois Fortier, but couldn’t turn the game around.

Defenseman Mirko Lüdemann tallied a goal and an assist as the Kölner Haie defeated the Frankfurt Lions on the road, 3-1 (1-0, 2-1, 0-0). The victory extended Cologne’s current win streak to six games. Brad Schlegel (powerplay) and Mickey Elick also scored as all of Cologne’s scoring was provided by defenders. Already trailing 3-0, Greg Adams scored Frankfurt’s sole goal on a 5-on-3 powerplay late in the second period, a tally that couldn’t spark the Lions’ sputtering offense, though.

Kassel gratefully accepts Ingolstadt’s “invitation”

Alexander Cherbajev had a goal and an assist as the Kassel Huskies snapped their six-game losing streak with a 3-0 (2-0, 0-0, 1-0) blanking of expansion team ERC Ingolstadt on the road. The defeat not only marked the third straight loss for the slumping Ingolstadt team, but also the second straight time the ERC was held scoreless at home. Kassel’s young German goalie Markus Janka, who started in place of injured Rich Parent, recorded his first shutout of the season.

Scoring efficiency made the difference in a very poor game. Alexander Serikow opened the scoring midway through the first when Cherbayev found him wide-open in the right slot on the man advantage. Pat Mikesch doubled the lead four minutes later when he knocked Brent Peterson’s feed from the right corner past Ingolstadt’s goalie Mike Bales. Serikow then had to be helped off the ice after Jean-Francois Jomphe’s stick hit him on the throat. While Serikow was able to return later, Jomphe received a game misconduct. Although Kassel was not able to cash in on the ensuing five-minute powerplay, Ingolstadt never recovered from Jomphe’s ejection. With less than five minutes to go in regulation, Cherbayev capped the scoring at 3-0.

“The first period was just embarrassing,” Ingolstadt’s head coach Jim Boni remarked. “I guess I’ve never seen something like this in my whole coaching career. There was no team spirit. We actually invited them to win the game.”

“It’s a tough loss,” ERC forward Sean Tallaire stated. “We didn’t come out hard enough in the first period and fell behind two goals right away. Then it’s hard to come back, even though you’re at home. We gotta get back to the fundamentals of the game and do the little things right. We had our chances today but didn’t capitalize.”

“It’s a fine line between winning and losing sometimes,“ said Ingolstadt’s goalie Mike Bales, who was pulled for precautionary reasons in the second intermission after injuring his groin. “When things start going against you, it’s just little things. You don’t get bounces and you get behind early. Winning’s a habit and losing’s a habit. We gotta just play hard and keep doing what we need to do to win and hopefully things’ll start going our way.”

Late comeback for Düsseldorf

Jean-Francois Quintin and Jakub Ficenec (powerplay) scored late as the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars rallied to down the Krefeld Pinguine 3-2 (1-0, 0-1, 2-1) on home ice. Trond Magnussen got the Stars on the scoreboard first, but Krefeld temporarily managed to turn the momentum on goals by Sandy Moger (powerplay) and Sergej Stas-

The Nuremberg Ice Tigers needed a penalty shootout to down the Iserlohn Roosters 2-1 (0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0) on the road. Thanks to great goaltending at both ends of the ice, it took almost forty minutes until Nuremberg’s Steve Larouche broke the deadlock with a powerplay tally. With only 36 seconds left in regulation, Steve Washburn came up with the equalizer on the man advantage. Vitalij Aab converted the decisive attempt in the ensuing penalty shootout to give the Tigers an OT win.