Munich, Germany - Seemingly en route to their fourth-straight win, the league-leading Berlin Eisbären were lucky to eventually get away with a regulation tie after a wild finish in Augsburg Thursday night. Elsewhere on gameday 15 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the Mannheim Adler travelled to Frankfurt, seeking revenge for a 5-0 blanking earlier this season.

Fourth-line forward Björn Barta scored a goal and the game-winning conversion as the Augsburger Panther downed the Berlin Eisbären 4-3 (0-0, 0-0, 3-3, 1-0) at home, snapping a three-game losing streak. Augsburg seemed to have pulled off an amazing comeback when Xavier Delisle put the Panther up 3-2 with 1:51 left in the game. Rick Girard received Francois Fortier’s outlet pass, dashed past three opponents in the neutral zone and pushed the puck to his right, where Delisle whistled a wrister past Eisbären goalie Richard Shulmistra from the right slot, Augsburg’s third unanswered goal after falling behind 2-0 early in the third. But less than a minute later, Kelly Fairchild fired a quick wrister from the deep left slot low past the stick side of Panther netminder Magnus Eriksson to tie the contest at three apiece with his league-leading 11th goal 58 seconds before the end of regulation.

After two entertaining but scoreless periods, Berlin drew first blood when Björn Barta’s younger brother Alexander beat Eriksson with a low shot from the left slot 2:39 into the final stanza. Dennis Pederson doubled the lead on a short-handed 2-on-1 at the 7:36-mark. Dave Roberts sped along the left boards and found Peterson all alone near the right goal post for the 2-0 lead. The momentum swung when Björn Barta put Augsburg on the board just past the midway point of the period, beating Parent with a nifty backhand deke after being set up by Andrej Strakhov on a counterattack. Duanne Moeser came up with the 2-2 equalizer on the power-play with 3:12 left. He poked the puck home from the doorstep after a point shot by Eric Dandenault.

Ratchuk tallies twice in Lions’ win

Defender Peter Ratchuk scored a pair of goals as the Frankfurt Lions beat the Mannheim Adler for the second time this season. Ratchuk connected on an length-of-the-ice empty-netter 25 seconds from the final horn to secure Frankfurt’s 3-1 (0-0, 2-1, 1-0) home victory. Ratchuk gave Frankfurt a 1-0 lead 2:41 into the middle frame. On the two-man advantage, Mannheim’s defender Michael Bakos accidently redirected Ratchuk’s seemingly harmless pass from the left point into his own net. David Gosselin doubled the lead four minutes later, knocking the puck through the legs of Adler goalie Marc Seliger on a shorthanded breakaway. Christoph Ullmann got Mannheim to within a goal at 7:45 of the second, poking home a loose puck from the left slot. Behind great goaltending from Ian Gordon, who turned aside 35 shots, the Lions were able to protect the lead until Ratchuk’s eighth goal of the season put the game away.

Wins for Hamburg, Nuremberg and Kassel

After nearly squandering a four-goal lead, the Hamburg Freezers held on to beat expansion team Freiburg Wölfe 6-4 (4-1, 1-1, 1-2) on the road. Mark Greig, Jacek Plachta and Brad Purdie each tallied three points for Hamburg.

Marian Cisar scored a pair of goals as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers handed defending champs Krefeld Pinguine their seventh loss in eight games. After blowing a 3-1 early second-period lead, Steve Larouche converted the game-winning attempt to give Nuremberg a 4-3 (1-1, 2-0, 0-2, 1-0) road victory after penalty shootout.

Rob Busch tallied the eventual game-winner at 14:00 of the second period as the Kassel Huskies rallied to beat the Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars 3-1 (0-1, 2-0, 1-0).