Munich, Germany - Although they had their five-game winning streak snapped by the Berlin Eisbären, the Frankfurt Lions remain on top of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) after gameday 12. The Hamburg Freezers closed in on the top duo with a big home win Sunday.

While the Lions suffered their first road loss of the season, the Eisbären are a perfect 6-0 at home. Meanwhile, the Hamburg Freezers edged the Mannheim Adler at home. With 26 points each, Frankfurt (9-4), Berlin (9-3) and Hamburg (9-4) are in a three-way tie on top of the table. The Lions defended first place because of a better goal differential, but Berlin still has a game in hand over its two competitors.

Dave Roberts scored a goal and an assist as the Berlin Eisbären skated past the Frankfurt Lions, 3-1 (2-0, 0-1, 1-0). With a capacity crowd of 4,695 in attendance at Berlin’s Wellblechpalast, the Eisbären jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead. Roberts deflected a shot by Kelly Fairchild past Frankfurt’s Ian Gordon just seconds after a power-play expired to put Berlin up 1-0 at 11:09. Mark Beaufait doubled the lead, when he tucked home the rebound of a Rob Leask shot with just under five minutes to go in the opening frame.

The Lions got back into the game when Pat Lebeau struck on the two-man advantage 47 seconds into the middle frame. Behind a solid defensive effort, the Eisbären regained control of the game. Steve Walker made it 3-1 with 3:25 left in the second as Berlin held on for the win.

Freezers win on late goal by Hynes

Former Adler Wayne Hynes scored with under six minutes to go and Andy Schneider added an empty-net goal as the Hamburg Freezers edged the Mannheim Adler at home, 3-1 (1-1, 0-0, 2-0). Mannheim is sixth in the standings with a record of 6-5. Mannheim drew first blood when Mike Kennedy’s feed from the right slot found Rene Corbet for a tap-in on the doorstep 15:36 into the contest. Hamburg tied it on a late power-play goal when defenseman Dan Lambert’s slap-shot beat Adler goalie Richard Shulmistra through the five-hole with 46 seconds to go in the period. Great goaltending on both ends of the ice kept the contest knotted at 1-1 until Hamburg’s aggressive fore-checking led to the game’s key play late in the third. Skating along the right boards deep in his own zone, Adler forward Jason Podollan played an ill-fated pass to the middle of the ice which was intercepted by Wayne Hynes just inside the blue line. Hynes skated past two Adler defenders and - while falling down – reached out and swept the puck past Shulmistra for the game-winning score. Schneider’s empty-netter sealed the 3-1 victory 11 seconds before the buzzer.

High-scoring affair in Nuremberg

Steve Larouche scored two points in regulation (1 G, 1A) and converted the game-winning attempt in the penalty shootout as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers defeated the Augsburger Panther 6-5 (1-0, 2-4, 2-1, 1-0). Both teams are tied for fourth-place with 8 wins and 4 losses.
Defenseman Stephane Julien (3) and forwards Thomas Greilinger and Martin Jiranek (each 2) also recorded multiple point games as the Ice Tigers came out on top of a high-scoring see-saw battle. Francois Fortier (1G, 2A) was Augsburg’s leading scorer. Nuremberg had a one-goal lead three times before the momentum shifted a little late in the middle frame. Colin Beardsmore gave the Panther their first lead of the night with less than two minutes left in the second, but Nuremberg’s Josef Menauer scored just 1:34 into the final period to tie the contest at 4-4. Augsburg reclaimed the lead when Andrej Strakhov tallied less than a minute later. But a power-play goal from Vitalij Aab with 5:14 to go in regulation sent the contest to the penalty shootout.

Ingolstadt, Krefeld: Free fallin’

Eduard Lewandowski and defenseman Brad Schlegel scored early in the third period to lift the Kölner Haie to a 4-1 (1-0, 1-1, 2-0) home win over hapless ERC Ingolstadt. Cologne (6-6) is back at the .500-mark while Ingolstadt (2-8) fell to the bottom of the table.

Defending champs Krefeld Pinguine (5-7) could not find a way to get out of their slump either. Nick Naumenko (power-play) and Matthias Trattnig scored back-to-back early in the third as the Kassel Huskies (6-6) handed the Pinguine their fifth straight loss, winning 3-1 (1-1, 0-0, 2-0) at home.

Iserlohn snaps losing streak, Freiburg edges DEG

Ian McIntyre scored two goals and two assists as the Iserlohn Roosters (4-9) ended a seven-game losing skid with a 6-3 (2-1, 2-1, 2-1) home victory over the Hannover Scorpions (5-7).

Vadim Slivchenko converted the game-winning attempt as the Freiburg Wölfe improved to 3-9 with a 2-1 (0-0, 1-0, 0-1) home win after penalty shootout over the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars (4-8).