Munich, Germany - The Augsburger Panther continue to be the team of the moment in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Bernie Laporte’s team improved to 2-0 with a shutout win over the Hannover Scorpions Sunday night. Gameday 2 action was overshadowed by a phantom goal from Steve Palmer that gave the Kölner Haie the edge over local rival Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars.

With the game tied at 4-4, Palmer appeared to have knocked home the puck from the near right slot 8:27 into the final period. Referee Wolfgang Hellwig went to review the controversial scene and allowed the goal despite inconclusive visual evidence. Jeremy Adduono added another tally to give Cologne a 6-4 (4-2, 0-1, 2-1) home victory over Düsseldorf. The Metro Stars filed a protest after Hellwig admitted his mistake later on.

The capacity crowd of 18,509 in the KölnArena got to see a real see-saw game, including a six-goal opening period. Cologne drew first blood 5:44 into the campaign when defenseman Mirco Lüdemann scored on a short-handed breakaway, beating sliding DEG netminder Andrej Trefilov with a nice deke. But Düsseldorf responded right away when Pat Mikesch converted Jeff Tory’s feed from the left wing to even the score at one apiece. Dave McLlwain put the Haie back in front, firing the puck through Trefilov’s five-hole after Alex Hicks’ feed found him all alone in the left slot. Again, the Metro Stars Düsseldorf needed less than a minute to answer. DEG captain Trond Magnussen tied the game at 2-2, blasting a one-timer past Haie goalie Chris Rogles from the left faceoff circle on the powerplay. Tino Boos made it 3-2 in favor of Cologne when he hammered a one-timer from the left slot past Trefilov after a backhand feed from Eduard Lewandowski with 4:39 to go in the first. Helped by a lucky bounce, McLlwain doubled the lead to 4-2 with his second goal of the afternoon just 25 seconds before the first intermission. The DEG rallied though and tied the game at 4-4 on Mikesch’s second of the day and a tally from Belgian defenseman Mike Pellegrims, who ripped a wrister past screened Haie goalie Rogles from the left point.

Delisle and Wren lift Augsburg into first place

Xavier Delisle scored a pair of goals and Bob Wren had three assists as the Augsburg Panther moved to the top of the DEL table with a convincing 4-0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0) shutout win over the Hannover Scorpions. Colin Beardsmore opened the scoring midway through the first when Wren skated around Scorpions goalie Ilpo Kauhanen and found the wide-open Beardsmore in the slot with a quick feed from behind the net. Delisle doubled the lead eight minutes into the middle frame, re-directing defenseman Arvids Rekis’ feed on the man advantage. A one-timer by defender John Minder made it 3-0 on the powerplay late in the second. Set up by Shawn Carter on an odd-man rush, Delisle capped the scoring at 15:33 of the third with his second tally of the night. Panther goaltender Magnus Eriksson is the first goalie to record a shutout this season.

Huskies squander three-goal lead

Defenseman Darryl Shannon converted the game-winning shot as the Berlin Eisbären downed the Kassel Huskies 4-3 (0-2,1-1, 2-0,1-0) after penalty shootout on the road. Kassel had a 3-0 lead midway through the game after two tallies from Ted Drury and a goal from Tobias Abstreiter. But Björn Barta’s powerplay goal at 14:31 of the middle frame ignited an Eisbären comeback. Third period goals by Florian Keller and Rob Shearer forced the shootout decision. Like Hanover, Kassel is still winless. Berlin is in second place, trailing Augsburg by a point.

Krefeld: Revamped champions looking strong

After Friday’s OT win at Düsseldorf, the Krefeld Pinguine moved into third place in the standings with a 3-1 (1-1, 0-0, 2-0) home win over the Mannheim Adler. The defending champions continue impress despite a huge off-season overhaul – only nine players from the championship squad are still around. New sniper Mark Beaucage opened the scoring five minutes in, converting a feed from defenseman Daniel Kunce. A powerplay goal from Mannheim’s René Corbet evened the score late in the first. Third-period scores from defenders Chris Luongo and Justin Kurtz made the difference in a tight and fast-paced game.

Nine-goal shootout in Frankfurt

Behind goals from Wayne Hynes, Mark Greig and Brad Purdie, the Hamburg Freezers jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead and held on for a 5-4 (3-1, 1-2, 1-1) road win over the Frankfurt Lions, rebounding from their surprising opening day loss against Augsburg. Hynes opened the scoring on a two-man advantage 3:03 into the campaign, the first of three Freezers powerplay goals. Greig doubled the lead after Jacek Plachta’s feed midway through the period before Purdie added another powerplay goal with two minutes left in the first. A short-handed tally by Pat Lebeau got Frankfurt on the scoreboard in the final second of the opening period, cutting the Freezers’ lead to 3-1. But an early second-period powerplay score from defenseman Dan Lambert re-installed Hamburg’s three-goal lead. The Lions put on a rally though and moved to within a goal after back-to-back tallies from Michael Hackert and defender Peter Ratchuk (on the man-advantage). The game was on the line until Freezers defenseman Shane Peacock scored with less than three minutes left in regulation. Frankfurt got another goal, but it was too little, too late when former Freezer Jesse Belanger struck 62 seconds from the final horn. Both teams have a record of 1-1.

Freiburg: Improvement and inexperience

After being crushed 8-2 on opening day by Berlin, DEL expansion team Freiburger Wölfe looked a lot better in its home debut. Inexperience cost them their first win though. The Wölfe fell to 0-2 after squandering an early three-goal lead in a 5-4 loss to the Iserlohn Roosters (0-3, 4-0, 1-1), who improved to 1-1. Obviously willing to rebound from Friday’s dismal performance, Freiburg started out very well. Juraj Faith opened the scoring on a solo effort, defender Rudi Gorgenländer and center Oliver Coqueux added powerplay tallies to give the Wölfe a 3-0 lead at the 8-minute mark. Freiburg failed to build on the early lead and Iserlohn managed to turn the momentum on four unanswered second-period scores, including three straight powerplay tallies by James Black, defenseman Chris Bartolone and Matt Higgins. Less than a minute after Higgin’s 3-3 equalizer, Jason Cipolla’s goal put Iserlohn into the lead, 4-3, at 10:40 of the middle frame. Franz Fritzmeier put the game out of reach with less than four minutes to go in the third. Freiburg’s only Canadian Dany Bousquet capped the scoring at 5-4 with just over a minute left.