Munich, Germany - In a day of upsets in the Deutsche Eishockey-Liga (DEL), last year’s finalist Kölner Haie was routed on the road by the winless Hannover Scorpions Friday night. Frankfurt and newcomer Freiburg came up big while Mannheim and Hamburg struggled at home. In Berlin, the Augsburger Panther and Berlin Eisbären battled for the league lead.

Defenseman Micki DuPont scored 7:46 into the final period and fellow-defender Darryl Shannon tallied on the powerplay just over two minutes later as the Berlin Eisbären rallied from a 2-1 deficit to down the Augsburger Panther 4-2 (1-2, 1-0, 2-0). Forward Marc Beaufait contributed three assists. 4,400 in attendance at Berlin’s Wellblechpalast saw a high-paced and intense game. Augsburg’s Bob Wren drew first blood just 2:37 into the contest when his awkwardly deflected shot bounced past Eisbären goalie Rich Parent. Berlin tied the game at 1-1 on Steve Walker’s powerplay tally midway through the first. Augsburg reclaimed the lead when Andrej Strakhov scored off a turnover in the Eisbären zone four minutes later. Kelly Fairchild beat Panther netminder Magnus Eriksson through the five-hole to even the score at 2-2 midway through the middle frame. Skating four aside, DuPont scored off the rebound of Denis Peterson’s shot to put Berlin up 3-2. Shannon’s goal on the man advantage put the game out of reach with 9:53 left in regulation.

With a record of 3-0, the Eisbären are now on top of the DEL, two points ahead of Augsburg and Frankfurt, who are both 2-1.

Frankfurt stuns Mannheim

The revamped Frankfurt Lions continue to look strong. Jesse Belanger scored a goal and three assists as Rich Chernomaz’s team stunned the sluggish Mannheim Adler at home, 5-0 (1-0, 1-0, 3-0), giving netminder Ian Gordon his first shutout of the season. Set up by Christian Kohmann, Belanger put the Lions on the scoreboard from the near right slot eight minutes into the contest. Defender Peter Ratchuk doubled the lead late in the second. A shot from Paul Stanton was blocked and ended up right in front of Ratchuk who blasted it past Adler goalie Richard Shulmistra from the far left slot. After digging out the puck in the right corner, Pat Lebeau pulled to the net but passed the puck back to the top of the left faceoff circle from where Swedish defenseman Mikael Magnusson unleashed a rocket to make it 3-0 6:58 into the final stanza. Just over a minute later, Michael Hackert skated across the blueline, shot from the left faceoff circle and tucked home his own rebound to make it 4-0. A nice solo effort from Mark Etz capped the rout with 2:16 left in regulation.

The Kölner Haie also suffered a stunning loss. Veteran Len Soccio tallied two goals and an assist as the winless Hannover Scorpions crushed Cologne 6-1 (2-1, 2-0, 2-0) to record the first win at their new home, the Mellendorf IceHouse. Despite out-shooting the Scorpions 36-25, the Haie only once managed to get the puck past outstanding netminder Ilpo Kauhanen when Alex Hicks scored the temporary 1-1 equalizer on the man advantage midway through the opening period. Soccio’s two first-period goals gave Hanover a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. Matthias Lööf, Fredrik Öberg, Patrik Augusta (powerplay) and Jeff Christian also scored for the Scorpions.

Freiburg gets first DEL win

Probably the biggest upset of the night was witnessed by the spectators at Hamburg’s Color Line Arena where the Freezers were upset 3-1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1) by DEL expansion team Freiburger Wölfe. Set up by Sergej Stas, Freiburg’s Dany Bousquet broke the deadlock 5:25 into the middle frame. Less than two minutes before the second intermission, Leo Stefan received an outlet pass from Jiri Zelenka and double the lead with a breakaway goal. Hamburg’s Mark Greig cut the lead in half with a powerplay tally eight minutes from the final horn. The Freezers had another powerplay opportunity late in the game but failed to score again. Stefan’s second goal of the night, an empty-netter, capped the scoring with 43 seconds left.

Defending champions Krefeld Pinguine suffered their first loss of the season. Jürgen Rumrich scored on the powerplay 3:43 into the final period as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers edged Krefeld 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 1-0) at home. Nuremberg’s Vitalij Aab opened the scoring six minutes into the campaign, knocking home the rebound of Lasse Kopitz’s blueline bladt. Coming out of the penalty box, Pinguine defenseman Paul Dyck took Daniel Kunce’s outlet pass and tied the score at 1-1 on the breakaway with his team still down a man, 47 seconds into the middle frame.

Free falling: DEG still winless

Ian McIntyre and James Black each scored a pair of goals as the Iserlohn Roosters downed ERC Ingolstadt 6-3 (2-1, 2-1, 2-1). An early powerplay goal by Jakub Ficenec put Ingolstadt ahead 1-0, but Iserlohn bounced back with three unanswered goals. Matt Henderson and Franz Fritzmeier also tallied for the Roosters. Alexander Polaczek and Niki Mondt scored for Ingolstadt.

Still winless after three games, the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars fell to the bottom of the table. Austrian Matthias Trattnig had a pair of goals as the Kassel Huskies downed the Metro Stars 3-1 (2-0, 0-0, 1-1) on the road. Alexander Serikow also scored for Kassel while Pat Mikesch tallied Düsseldorf’s only goal.