Munich, Germany - Dwayne Norris tallied a pair of goals as the Frankfurt Lions continued to roll on gameday 11 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), extending their current winning streak to five straight games. The Augsburger Panther and Hamburg Freezers moved into a three-way tie for second place with the Berlin Eisbären. In a rematch of last year’s DEL finals, defending champion Krefeld Pinguine hosted the Kölner Haie.

With a capacity crowd of 7,000 on hand at Frankfurt’s Eissporthalle, the league-leading Lions crushed the Kassel Huskies 5-1 (2-0, 2-1, 1-0). Veteran Paul Stanton opened the scoring 4:37 into the contest, ripping a one-timer past Kassel’s Joaquin Gage from the top of the right face-off circle. The Lions doubled the lead on the man advantage when Dwayne Norris re-directed Francois Bouchard’s blast from the center point with 4:30 left in the opening frame. Frankfurt kept pressing. But Gage denied the Lions again and again until Jason Young scored on an odd-man rush 8:05 into the second, wristing home the puck from the right slot. Norris put the game out of reach a minute later. He made it 4-0 with his second tally of the night, knocking home the rebound of Peter Ratchuk’s point shot on the two-man advantage. Paul Brousseau came up with Kassel’s only tally on the power-play with 5:43 left in the second, hammering a slapshot from the left faceoff circle past Lions goalie Ian Gordon. Pat Lebeau, who also assisted on Stanton’s first-period goal, capped the score at 5-1 on an oddman-rush 1:39 from the final buzzer.

Augsburg and Hamburg win

Ronny Arendt scored a hat trick as the Augsburger Panther routed the hapless Freiburg Wölfe at home. Bob Wren contributed a goal and three assists in Augsburg’s 6-1 (2-1, 2-0, 2-0) victory.

Bobby House tallied a pair of power-play goals as the Hamburg Freezers skated past ERC Ingolstadt, winning 4-1 (1-0, 1-1, 2-0) on the road. All goals were scored on the power-play. Dan Lambert opened the scoring, wristing the puck past Ingolstadt’s Jimmy Waite from between the hashmarks on the man advantage. Ingolstadt evened the score on the power-play early in the second when Doug Ast deflected a no-look point shot from defenseman Jakub Ficenec past Freezers goalie Boris Rousson. Hamburg regained the lead late in the period when House ripped home a one-timer on the power-play. The Freezers put the game away with two more power-play tallies midway through the final stanza: Defenseman Darren van Impe connected from the center point and House blasted home his second of the night from the top of the left faceoff circle.

Düsseldorf getting better and better

Pat Mikesch and defender Jeff Tory each scored two points and Tore Vikingstad converted the game-winning attempt in the penalty shootout as the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars downed the Berlin Eisbären 3-2 (1-0, 1-1, 0-1, 1-0), ending Berlin’s three-game win streak. Mikesch went top-shelf on the game’s first power-play to put Düsseldorf on the scoreboard only 3:18 into the contest. Berlin struggled early on, but Oliver Jonas’ solid netminding kept the Eisbären in the game. Alexander Barta tied the score midway through the second, burying the rebound of a shot by Florian Keller. Düsseldorf regained a 2-1 lead four minutes later when Daniel Kreutzer scored at 14:35 of the second period. But the momentum shifted early in the third. Off a turnover, Mark Beaufait evened the score on a short-handed breakaway only five seconds into final stanza. He intercepted the first pass right after the opening face-off and beat Stars goalie Andrej Trefilov with a nifty move to make it 2-2. The Eisbären kept pressing, but could not find the back of the net again. After a bad start into the season, the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars have won four of their last six games.

Rematch of last year’s finals

Alex Hicks scored two goals as the Kölner Haie routed defending champs Krefeld Pinguine in a rematch of last season’s finals, 6-2 (2-1, 2-0, 2-1) on the road. Cologne took a 1-0 lead only 148 seconds into the tilt when a shot from Eduard Lewandowski was deflected into the net by the skate of Krefeld’s Chris Kelleher on the power-play. The Pinguine evened the score at 14:04 when Terry Yake ripped a hard shot from the left faceoff-circle over the shoulder of screened Haie goalie Chris Rogles. Cologne regained a 2-1 lead when Steve Palmer’s feed from behind the net found Ron Pasco on the doorstep with only 19 seconds to go in the first. The Haie put the game out of reach when Hicks scored back-to-back power-play goals within a two minute span late in the middle frame. He first re-directed a point shot from Mirko Lüdemann past Pinguine goalie Robert Müller to make it 3-1 at 13:53 of the second. Two minutes later, Hicks knocked home his own rebound after intercepting a pass from Krefeld’s Justin Kurtz to extend the Haie lead to 4-1 with 4:08 to go in the middle frame. Eric Bertrand went top-shelf to cut the lead to two goals seven minutes into the third. But Cologne responded with back-to-back tallies by Andreas Morczinietz and defenseman Mickey Elick, who scored on a nice solo effort.

Doug Mason winless in DEL return

The debut of new head coach Doug Mason could not spark the Iserlohn Roosters. Derek Plante recorded a pair of assists as the Mannheim Adler handed the Roosters their seventh straight loss, winning 3-1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1) at home. Jason Podollan opened the scoring on the man advantage at 13:33 of the first. After a late second-period score by Rene Corbet, defenseman Chris Joseph extended Mannheim’s lead to 3-0 1:25 into the final stanza. Jason Cipolla scored Iserlohn’s only goal on the power-play with 12:28 to go.