Munich, Germany - With ten games left in the regular season in the DEL, the battle for the final playoff berths is heating up. Four teams, Krefeld, Kassel, Hamburg and Iserlohn, are battling for three remaining playoff spots. At the bottom of the table, five teams hope to avoid relegation.

After three scoreless periods, Yvon Corriveau converted the game-winning penalty shot to lift the Berlin Eisbären to a 1-0 (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0) home win over the Kassel Huskies. Berlin has hit a little slump: The Eisbären have not recorded a regulation win in their last seven games. Their high-powered offense created more scoring opportunities than the defensive-minded Huskies, but did not look as impressive as in the previous weeks. Kassel’s Rich Parent and Berlin’s Oliver Jonas both recorded shutouts.

Streaking Ice Tigers win again

Rob Guillet had two goals and an assist as the streaking Nürnberg Ice Tigers downed the Krefeld Pinguine on the road, 4-2 (2-1, 1-1, 1-0). The victory extended Nuremberg’s current win streak to eight. The fifth-ranked Tigers still hope to sneak among the top four to secure home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. “(Ice Tigers goalie Frederic) Chabot was the difference tonight,“ Pinguine head coach Butch Goring stated.

Dwayne Norris and Sebastian Furchner each scored a goal and a helper as the second-place Kölner Haie skated to a 4-2 (2-1, 1-1, 1-0) away win over the ninth-ranked Iserlohn Roosters. Behind goals from Norris and Mirko Lüdemann (powerplay), Cologne jumped out to a 2-0 halfway through the opening period. Petr Fical cut the lead in half, but Niclas Sundblad restored Cologne’s two-goal advantage early in the middle frame. Steve Washburn’s powerplay tally with less than six minutes remaining in the second got the Roosters back into the game. But that was as close as they could get. Furchner sealed the win 53 seconds from the final horn.

Düsseldorf moves into third-place tie

Norwegians Tore Vikingstad and Tommy Jakobsen scored first-period goals to lift the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars to a 2-0 (2-0, 0-0, 0-0) win over the Mannheim Adler, capping a scoreless weekend for the Adler, who were blanked 2-0 by Hamburg two days earlier. The DEG moved into a third-place tie with the Adler. Like the previous meeting between the two teams in the week before Christmas, the game turned into an intense and heated battle with a total of 124 penalty minutes, including four game misconducts. Only four minutes in, Vikingstad put Düsseldorf on the scoreboard on a 5-on-3 powerplay opportunity. Late in the period, defenseman Jakobsen doubled the lead on another two-man advantage.

Battle against relegation heating up

Matthias Lööf and Gilbert Dionne scored as the Hannover Scorpions skated to a 2-1 (1-0, 1-0, 0-1) home win over the Augsburg Panther. Shawn Carter scored Ausgburg’s only goal. With ten games left in the regular season, both teams are three wins away from eight place, which qualifies for the final playoff berth, and thus virtually eliminated from playoff contention.

Like the Frankfurt Lions they still have to keep an eye on hot ERC Ingolstadt that hopes to get out of 13th place, which would make them play a so-called playdown series against the last-place Schwenninger Wild Wings to determine the team that will be relegated to Division 2.

Paul Stanton had three assists as the Frankfurt Lions rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit to beat the Schwenninger Wild Wings on the road 3-2 (0-2, 3-0, 0-0). Goals from Dave Chyzowski and Eric Houde gave the slumping Wings a 2-0 lead at the first intermission, but Frankfurt turned the momentum with three unanswered goals in the middle frame by Rick Girard, Marc Fortier and Dave LeBeau.

Behind hot netminding from Mike Bales, ERC Ingolstadt bounced back from Friday’s home loss with a stunning 4-2 (2-1, 1-0, 1-1) road win over the Hamburg Freezers. Back-to-back powerplay tallies from Samuel Groleau gave Ingolstadt a 2-0 lead. Mike Stevens got Hamburg on the board late in the first period. But Ingolstadt continued to outsmart the Freezers. Goals from Glenn Goodall midway through the second and Shayne Toporowski early in the final period put the game out of reach. Hamburg’s Ted Crowley capped the scoring at 4-2 5:53 into the third.