Munich, Germany - With the league heading into a two-week break, defending champion Kölner Haie is back on top of the DEL after gameday 19. While the Mannheim Adler got upset by the soaring Krefeld Pinguine Sunday night, Cologne climbed to first place with a shutout win over the ailing Augsburg Panthers. Elsewhere, struggling expansion team ERC Ingolstadt ended a seven-game losing streak with a huge upset.

Netminder Chris Rogles recorded his third shutout of the season as the Kölner Haie blanked the Augsburg Panthers 2-0 (0-0, 1-0, 1-0) on the road. Penalties killed Augsburg which amassed a total of 57 penalty minutes. Veteran Dave McLlwain cashed in twice. He scored two powerplay goals, one on the two-man advantage.

The Haie (42 points) are now one point ahead of the Mannheim Adler, who suffered their highest loss of the season. Coming in as league leaders, the Adler got thrashed by the Krefeld Pinguine, 5-2 (1-1, 1-0, 3-1). Four of Krefeld’s five tallies were scored on the powerplay, two of them on 5-on-3. Forward Brad Purdie and defenseman Christian Ehrhoff each had three points for Krefeld.

Mannheim (41) and the third-place Berlin Eisbären (40), who had a bye, respectively have one and two games in hand over Cologne.

The league will take a two week break for the “Deutschland Cup”, an international tournament which will be held in Hanover next weekend.

Ingolstadt stuns DEG, snaps losing streak

Elsewhere, the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars (35 points) missed the opportunity to close in on the league-leading trio. They got stunned on home ice by expansion team ERC Ingolstadt (18). Team leading scorer Jean-Francois Jomphe recorded his third straight multiple-point game, tallying a powerplay goal and two assists as Ingolstadt upset the DEG 4-2 (2-0, 0-1, 2-1), snapping a seven-game winless streak.

Ingolstadt opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 powerplay. Jean-Francois Jomphe made it 1-0, tucking the rebound of Francois Bouchard’s point shot into the net. Skating 5-on-4, Ingolstadt doubled the lead on the same powerplay when Jomphe’s shot from the deep right slot trickled through goalie Alex Jung’s legs and Shayne Toporowski sent the loose puck into the net for his first goal of the season.

Düsseldorf cut the lead in half when Marc Beaucage scored on an odd-man rush 87 seconds into the middle frame. Backed by great goaltending from Ilpo Kauhanen, Ingolstadt managed to hang on to the lead. Kauhanen robbed Beaucage twice, including a sprawling save on a 1-0-breakaway.

Ingolstadt extended the gap to two goals again on its third powerplay score of the night midway through the third. With his back to the net, Jomphe drop passed the puck to Brad Burym from the blueline. From the left faceoff circle, Burym fed it to a wide-open Jason Young at the opposing post, who lifted it into the net to put Ingolstadt ahead 3-1.

Düsseldorf showed some life when Beaucage closed the gap to 3-2 on his second tally of the night. But Ingolstadt continued to move the puck around pretty well. Glen Goodall played give-and-go with Shayne Toporowski deep in Düsseldorf’s zone and beat Jung to seal the 4-2 win with less than two minutes left.

Nuremberg loses game and Larouche

Matthias Löof scored a goal and a helper as the Hannover Scorpions (30 points) blanked the injury-riddled Nuremberg Ice Tigers (29) 2-0 (0-0, 2-0, 0-0). Even worse: Nuremberg lost yet another key player. Steve Larouche is out for the season after tearing the ACL and meniscus in his knee.

Paul Brousseau gave the Schwenningen Wild Wings (16 points) their second OT win of the weekend. Two days after downing Ingolstadt after penalty shootout, Brousseau converted the winning attempt against the Iserlohn Roosters to secure a 3-2 (0-2, 0-0, 2-0, 1-0) victory. Iserlohn (29) not only squandered an early two goal lead, but also suffered its second straight OT loss.

Tobias Abstreiter had two goals as the slumping Kassel Huskies (22 points) registered a hard-fought 2-1 (2-1, 0-0, 0-0) win over the Frankfurt Lions (25), getting their second win in twelve games.