Munich, Germany - Kelly Fairchild scored a hat trick as the Berlin Eisbären defended their lead in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with a lucky come-from-behind win at expansion team Freiburg Wölfe Sunday night. Elsewhere on gameday 14, Frankfurt and Hamburg both had to go to shootout decisions and failed to keep pace in the race for first place.

Expansion team Freiburg Wölfe seemed to have the Berlin Eisbären on the verge of defeat when Peter Mares made it 4-2 three minutes into the final period. But Kelly Fairchild scored a three times within an 11-minute span to give Berlin a rather lucky 5-4 (1-2, 0-1, 4-1) road win. Down 3-1 at the second intermission, Berlin cut Freiburg’s lead to one goal when David Roberts scored into a wide open net after a feed from Steve Walker 1:13 into the final frame. Freiburg regained a two-goal lead when Mares ripped a hard short past Berlin’s Oliver Jonas from the deep left slot. Led by Kelly Fairchild, the Eisbären battled back, though. He closed the gap to 4-3, batting the airborne puck into the Wölfe net at 4:34. Fairchild knotted the contest at 4-4 with Berlin’s second powerplay tally of the night with 7:16 to go in the third.
The Eisbären kept pressing. Off Denis Perderson’s face-off win, Fairchild ripped a slapshot past Wölfe goalie Hugo Haas for the game-winner 4:44 from the final buzzer.

Scott King scored back-to-back goals late in the middle frame and also converted the game-winning attempt in the penalty shootout as the Iserlohn Roosters rallied to down the second-place Frankfurt Lions 4-3 (1-0, 2-3, 0-0, 1-0) on the road. Frankfurt clearly dominated the game early on, but blew a 3-1 lead. Mark Etz put the Lions up 1-0 from near left slot late in the opening frame. Martin Reichel doubled the lead 4:50 into the second, knocking home his own rebound from the left slot. A breakaway goal by Jason Cipolla put the Roosters on the scoreboard midway through the middle stanza. Frankfurt regained a two-goal lead when Michael Hackert netted the rebound of a one-timer from Dwayne Norris for the game’s only power-play goal with 5:16 left in the second. But two late goals by King tied the contest at 3-3 heading into the final period. With exactly 2 minutes left, he knocked a shot from the deep left slot past Lions netminder Ian Gordon. Only 20 seconds from the buzzer, James Black made a nice outlet pass and King rifled home a slapper from the right faceoff circle for the 3-3 equalizer. After a scoreless third, King secured Iserlohn’s road win with the game-winning penalty shot.

Brad Purdie scored a goal, an assist and the game-winning conversion as the Hamburg Freezers came from behind to beat the Augsburger Panther on the road, 4-3 (1-2, 1-1, 1-0, 1-0) after penalty shootout. The home loss marked Augsburg’s third straight defeat.

Kassel twice managed to erase a two-goal deficit, but Mike Kennedy scored on the breakaway with 5:43 to go in regulation to lift the Mannheim Adler to a 5-4 (2-0, 2-3, 1-1) road victory over the Kassel Huskies. After a neutral zone turnover and a quick pass by Christoph Ullmann, Kennedy found himself on a 1-on-0 and fooled Huskies netminder Joaquin Gage with a nifty backhand move for the game-winning-goal. Adler forward Jason Podollan recorded a hat trick.

The Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars squandered a three-goal lead, but Daniel Kreutzer saved the day. His game-winning conversion in the penalty shootout gave Düsseldorf a 4-3 (0-0, 2-0, 1-3, 1-0) road win over defending champs Krefeld Pinguine. After a scoreless first, Kreutzer faked shot and found Mikesch in near right slot for the 1-0 on the man advantage with under five minutes to go in the second. After a Pinguine turnover, Christian Brittig set up Trond Magnussen with a terrific backhand feed and Magnussen lifted the puck over diving netminder Robert Müller for the 2-0 lead late in the middle frame. While skating 4-4, Kreutzer made it 3-0 on an odd-man rush 2:24 into the final stanza. Krefeld’s Marc Beaucage scored off the rebound of Eric Bertrand’s shot to cut the lead to 3-1. With just over three minutes to go, Jonas Lanier went top-shelf from between the hashmarks to put the Pinguine within a goal. 1:03 from the final horn, defender Chris Kelleher faked a shot, skated to left point and sent the puck at the net. Rob Guillet redirected it for the late equalizer.

Elsewhere, the Kölner Haie kept the Nürnberg Ice Tigers at bay, 3-2 (0-0, 3-2, 0-0). ERC Ingolstadt registered its second straight home win, edging the Hannover Scorpions by the same score, 3-2 (2-1, 1-1, 0-0).